"Join the Marines? Don’t make me laugh."
Alucard crossed his legs, his hands clasped over his knees. "I don’t have a single shred of justice in my heart."
While for Alucard, any place was much the same, compared to the Marines with their endless rules and regulations, he’d rather drift across the seas alone.
"Ah... I thought as much. A real shame." Kuzan had no intention of pressing the issue, not only because he wasn’t good at it, but also because he could tell from every angle that Alucard’s mind was made up; it was impossible to change his opinion.
"Excuse me, esteemed customer, thank you for waiting! Here are the twenty-two different bottles of wine you ordered. The total comes to 5.4 million Berries. We’ve rounded it down for you."
Just then, two waiters, one on each side, placed a large wooden crate on the floor beside Alucard and Kuzan’s table. One waiter looked intently at Kuzan, his meaning clear: pay up.
Kuzan’s face immediately contorted as if he’d eaten something foul. "You can get the money from your town’s Marine branch later."
Kuzan pointed to the Marine symbol on his cap, indicating his identity. The Marines’ influence was vast. Hearing Kuzan’s words, someone immediately left, seemingly to get the money from the branch.
Suddenly, the shadow beneath Alucard’s feet rapidly expanded, dyeing the pale marble black. In an instant, the ground became like a black hole, sucking the wooden crate containing over twenty bottles of wine into it.
Approximately five seconds later, the crate was completely swallowed, and the shadow returned to Alucard’s feet.
"A Devil Fruit user!"
The waiters were surprised, but didn’t scream exaggeratedly. After all, the North Blue was the strongest of the Four Seas. Even ordinary citizens had some understanding of things like Devil Fruits and knew that many pirates and Marines possessed incredible abilities.
"Arara... What a convenient ability!" Kuzan exclaimed, quite astonished by the sight.
"May I ask one more question?" Kuzan continued.
A sharp glint flashed beneath the sunglasses. "You, what is your purpose for setting sail? Do you simply want to be a pirate hunter and earn money with your skills, or do you intend to become a pirate, like Roger or Whitebeard, aiming to conquer the Grand Line?"
Even if he couldn’t recruit him into the Marines, Kuzan at least wanted to understand what kind of person Alucard was, or from his words, discern what path he might take in the future.
"Why did you join the Marines?" Alucard countered.
"To thoroughly uphold justice." Kuzan gave a serious yet strangely nonsensical answer.
Alucard grinned. "I’m not like you."
"How are you different?"
"People live for themselves. I live for myself, for my own joy, my own survival, my own life. In other words, I don’t pursue justice. I pursue only one thing: pleasure."
Alucard’s objective was that simple. Simply put, it was to make himself feel good. Leaving the island was for this reason, fighting was for this reason, and sitting here talking with Kuzan was for this reason. For himself, for the feeling of pleasure.
"You’re a terrifying individual. I think I should request a special unit just to watch you." Although Alucard wasn’t famous yet, and his encounter with Zephyr here was purely coincidental, Kuzan still felt that Alucard would become extraordinary in the future.
Alucard stood up. "It’s rare to encounter a Logia-type Devil Fruit user. Let’s have a fight, Marine Rear Admiral!"
"Ara~ A fight? I’m really not motivated. Let’s just forget it..." Kuzan scratched the back of his head. When it came to this sort of thing, he still adopted the policy of avoiding it if possible.
However, before he could finish speaking, Kuzan felt something press against his throat. To outsiders, it looked as if Alucard had pulled out a gun and was pointing its muzzle directly at Kuzan’s throat.
"Hey, kid, don’t do anything too extreme, now..." Kuzan drawled, and as he finished speaking, his body began to turn to ice.
Alucard found that the muzzle of his Casull was already covered in a layer of ice, blocking the opening.
Alucard whistled, then suddenly grinned. "How interesting! Alright, come on, Marine Rear Admiral!"
"Arara~ This is such a hassle..."
Kuzan stood up and stretched lazily. He wasn’t in a hurry because he didn’t sense any killing intent from Alucard.
Now, he was certain that Alucard’s words were true: he acted for fun, for pleasure. This was the principle the man named Alucard lived by.
Among the three rarest Devil Fruits, the Logia type, Alucard had long wanted to see one firsthand. Could his attacks actually harm them?
’This counts as a failed recruitment attempt, a little something to take back to Zephyr-sensei,’ Kuzan thought.
The two quickly walked towards the East Port, leaving the wine shop staff to finally let out a huge sigh of relief and collapse onto the floor.