Resettlement

Actually, if it had only been Yota, getting lost at sea would not have been much of a problem.

This was not the New World. Although the first half of the Grand Line had harsh weather, it was still far better than the meteorological disasters of the New World.

With Yota’s strength, even drifting at sea posed no threat to him. If he was hungry, he could hunt sea beasts and Sea Kings. If he was thirsty, he could simply use Water Release to condense fresh water.

Even without food or water, Yota could hold out for several months. The physiques of people in the Pirate World could not be compared to those in the real world.

Just think of Red-Leg Zeff, who had endured eighty-five days in such harsh conditions. Then think of Akainu and Aokiji’s battle, where they fought for ten days and ten nights without food, water, or sleep while exhausting enormous amounts of stamina. That was enough to show how tough the people of this world were.

However, the key issue was that besides Yota himself, his Dark Space contained a huge group of slaves!

Yota himself was powerful, but these slaves could not endure it. Their bodies were covered in old injuries accumulated over the years, layered with fresh wounds. Leaving them untreated was one thing, but without food and water, nearly half of them would die within days.

Fortunately, Yota had some capable subordinates.

Violet and the others had stayed in the Dark Space for quite some time before Yota released them. The moment they came out, Ulti, Page One, and Kyros all looked on guard. Ulti even shouted, "Where are the enemies? Where are they?"

"We already escaped. There are no enemies now," Yota said with a curl of his lip.

To be honest, Yota had now discovered a problem. The gap between his own strength and that of his crew had become far too severe.

To put it bluntly, aside from Charlotte Pudding, who possessed the Memory Fruit, and Violet, who possessed the Glint-Glint Fruit, the others were basically of no use to him anymore.

In the battles Yota took part in, they could not even withstand the aftershocks if they went with him!

He had originally brought Page One and his sister mainly for their navigational skills. As for Kyros, Yota simply had not wanted to leave him in Dressrosa as a hidden threat. But now, Yota had begun considering how to settle them.

For now, that thought merely flashed through his mind. The urgent task was to quickly find an inhabited island.

Yota glanced at Violet and the others and noticed that they all bore injuries to varying degrees, left behind when he had crashed back into the warship.

After treating them with Medical Ninjutsu, Yota turned to Violet and asked, "Violet, can you tell where we are?"

Violet shook her head. "I’ve never been to the first half of the Grand Line. Even if you ask me, I don’t really know!"

"Then can you find the nearest island?" Yota asked with a frown.

"That I can do! There’s an island about three hundred kilometers away! There aren’t many people there, though. It seems to be inhabited by a group of natives."

Yota nodded. "Then we’ll go there! No matter what, with so many slaves, we need to settle them somewhere for the time being."

After saying that, Yota transformed into a giant dragon again, wrapped Violet and the others in Flame Clouds, and flew into the sky.

With Violet guiding the way, they reached that island in no time.

"They really are a bunch of natives!" Yota said in surprise. Beneath his feet, a group of dark-skinned natives kept kneeling and kowtowing to him.

It was not that Yota had done anything to them. He had arrived in his giant dragon form before transforming into a human, so these natives seemed to have taken him for some kind of deity.

Because ninety-five percent of the One Piece World was covered by ocean and every nation was island-based, the development of civilization was highly fragmented.

This was especially true in a place like the Grand Line, where the climate was harsh and travel was difficult. There were Mechanism Islands that seemed to belong to a near-future world, as well as natives like these who were little different from primitive tribes. It was all because there was so little contact between the islands.

Still, that was convenient for Yota. The very existence of a native island like this showed that even on the sparsely connected Grand Line, it was the kind of inconspicuous island that might go years without anyone visiting.

That way, there would not be much of a problem with releasing the slaves here. Otherwise, in other places, Yota might settle them down only for the Marines to come knocking as soon as he left.

These escaped slaves of the Celestial Dragons had the Celestial Dragon’s mark branded onto their backs, so their situation on the seas was not good. Only on a deserted island occupied by natives like this could they safely recuperate and rebuild their lives.

Yota opened the Dark Space within his body, and nearly ten thousand slaves walked out. Their faces still carried timid, fearful expressions.

In these people’s memories, the Celestial Dragons had driven them directly into a dark space. They had remained there for several hours, and only emerged again after the door to the dark space opened.

As for everything that had happened during that time, none of them knew.

Yota had no intention of explaining much to them. He handed the matter of the slaves over to Kyros and Violet and let them slowly calm them down.

Still, he was not idle. These slaves had endured torture under the Celestial Dragons for so long that they had countless physical ailments. Some had even reached the point where the damage had become deeply entrenched. Only Yota could heal them.

If Yota had not possessed Medical Ninjutsu and the Munch-Munch Fruit’s modification ability, healing nearly ten thousand slaves would have been nothing but a dream.

Even with Yota’s current medical ability, which could practically be called the best in the entire Pirate World, treating every one of those nearly ten thousand slaves took him several days.

But honestly, these slaves were not useless people. After all, anyone chosen by the Celestial Dragons must have had some distinguishing trait. Slaves who were purely ordinary people were quite rare.

They were either members of rare races, pirates with a certain degree of strength, or people with some special skill. At worst, they had to be beautiful, or possess some identity or status, such as a princess of a fallen kingdom.

After being treated, every one of them proved incredibly capable. Without needing any help from Yota and the others, they began building up the deserted island.

The capable pirates hunted on the island and in the sea. Highly skilled craftsmen planned the island’s layout. Several Tontatta directed the farming…

In just a few months, the entire island had gradually ceased to be a deserted island.