Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece.

Chapter III: Charlos


February 4th, 5:30 a.m

The door creaked open and the cruel man walked in with the kind one following close behind. "Wake up, brats!" the cruel one yelled.

Most of the children woke up, the ones who didn't were gently shaken awake by the kids beside them. Azaria sat up and rubbed her eyes, her back was sore and her whole body ached. She looked around the room she was in and began inwardly panicking. The last thing she remembered happening was walking into the room with the metal table, and now here she was in a dim, freezing room and covered with a thin blanket.

She glanced around a bit more and eyed Lyra walking over to her. Lyra looked tired, with dark bags under her eyes and her soft, happy demeanor was replaced with one that felt sad and terrified. Nonetheless, when she was beside Azaria, she smiled warmly before asking, "How are you feeling, Zari?"

"My body hurts a lot and I can't remember what happened after walking into that room." Azaria stared at the younger girl with a questioning look.

Her smile faltered for a moment upon recognizing what her friend was talking about. "Well...last night, all of us—" she was cut off.

"Hurry up!" a gruff voice shouted.

Everyone got up and began walking towards the door. While walking Lyra whispered, "I'll tell you when when I get the chance."

Azaria simply smiled at her in response.

They were led through the room with the metal table, up the stairs and into the room where they had gotten their clothes the night before. Two of the men each pried open a barrel. "Here's your breakfast, you have 5 minutes."

Knowing their time constraint, all of the children didn't hesitate when going to get their food. This also may be their only chance to eat today after all. Azaria walked up to one of the barrels and grabbed out an apple. It was red and shiny, on top of that it was fresh.

As she bit into it she could hear the crunch, it tasted like heaven in her mouth. It had been so long since she had eaten fresh fruit, let alone something that tasted good. She ate it as quickly as possible, only leaving the seeds and stem intact. Looking around, she noticed that everyone had the fruit by now. She walked back over to the barrel, reached in and grabbed one more.

She assumed that they'd be eating every morning, knowing that she felt okay with eating more than one apple. This was the fullest her belly had been at one time in over a month and it felt good. For now, she thought maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

"Stop eating, time to go." he pointed at Azaria, "One of you, take her to Saint Charlos."

Azaria dropped the unfinished apple in her hand upon hearing those words. She didn't know his name before but now she assumed that was the name of the boy from last month. The one who had chosen her to be a slave. The fear that had faded while she was eating came rushing back.

The kind man walked up to her and gently took her hand, leading her out of the room. Before they stepped through the doorway, she looked back and seen Lyra staring at her. She looked so scared. When they walked out of the house Azaria noticed it was still dark out. The air was cold and she shivered.

Noticing this, the man looked at her and smiled softly. "Don't worry, we'll be inside soon, it's warm in there."

Azaria could only spare him a small smile. The thought of being inside in the warmth was nice, but the thought of being inside with that boy truly scared her. She hoped that this kind man would stay with her the whole time she was inside. She could feel some sort of malicious intent emanating from the mansion.

The malicious feeling made her think of last night. Everything surrounding that room was so hazy, she couldn't make anything out. She couldn't remember a single thing about it aside from the suspicion that it was bad. An idea suddenly popped into her mind—maybe, just maybe, she could ask the kind man what happened. She needed to know about last night, and she didn't want to wait. No matter what it was—how bad it was—she needed to know what happened to her.

They walked inside the palace, the floors and walls were both white. On the walls hung beautiful portraits of quite unpleasant looking people. One of the portraits she spotted was of the man she had seen back home—Saint Rosward. Seeing that man again made her feel sick. She shook the thought away and went back to what she had been thinking about before.

So far, the man holding her hand been nothing but nice to her. None of her gut instincts or feelings were telling her that this man was bad either, so she decided she'd ask him what had happened last night.

"Mister, what happened last night? After we went to that room I mean…" her voice quivered at the end of her sentence. She was trying to prepare herself for the worst to happen but it was hard.

"Hold on a minute and we can talk." the man said. He looked back at her and smiled before looking around for a door. Once he spotted one he stopped for a moment and seemed to focus on it.

After what seemed like minutes, he began walking again until he spotted another door and repeated the action he had done previously. This time, instead of walking further he opened the door and led her inside, closed the door and flipped on a light. The room was a small storage closet—well, it wasn't exactly small but it was compared to the palace she was in.

The walls were lined with shelves that had various cleaning supplies and there were a few mops leaned against the wall as well. The man crouched down to her height and took off his hat before looking at her and smiling warmly. Azaria finally got a good view of him this time. He had shaggy dark brown hair, warm green eyes and long lashes. He looked no older than 20.

"My name is Noah. What's yours?" he asked softly.

Azaria thought for a moment, he was still being overwhelmingly nice—that was making her trust him though. She looked up at him and smiled as brightly as she could. "My name is Azaria."

The man ruffled her hair the same way he had done over a month ago. His expression saddened for a moment in thought. "So…" he began, "you wanna know about last night?" he asked softly.

Azaria nodded almost immediately after his words.

The man thought for a moment, trying to decide how to explain what happened to the little girl in front of him. Finally deciding he'd leave some details out he began to speak, "After we got in that room, my commanding officer…" his expression dimmed as anger and sadness dripped from his voice, "he began to brand all of you kids. I'm…" he paused, trying to gain composure. "I'm so sorry I couldn't do anything to stop it…"

Those words hurt her—a lot. But despite that, Azaria hugged him. She could hear the regret in his words, the sorrow emanating from his very being.

The man was caught off guard by her action. He hadn't been expecting this from her after he confessed to not being able to stop anything. After a moment, he hugged her back, careful not to embrace her too tightly.

Azaria pulled away and stared into his eyes. "It's okay, I promise." she said softly.

The man was filled with happiness—this little girl with still so pure, her soul has yet to be tainted too badly. She barely knew him but she was still sweet to him despite that. He was starting to feel an overwhelming desire to protect her. And so, from that moment he decided. He was going to find a way to get her out of there.

He thought for a moment, he wouldn't be able to get her out while she's still in Mary Geoise. So that left one option: he had to save her when she leaves. Considering Charlos and Rosward had just returned the day prior, it was quite likely that they wouldn't be leaving Mary Geoise anytime soon.

The fact that she was Charlos' personal slave did help matters however. If he left he would likely bring her along with him. Alright, contact the boss, find out when they'll leave again, and save her when they're out at sea.

"—ster, mister? Everything okay?" Azaria asked, snapping Noah out of his thoughts.

"S-sorry about that." he paused, " I was just thinking and well—" he smiled warmly, "I'm gonna do my best to get you out of here. It might take a while though, and for that, I'm sorry." he said.

Azaria didn't know what to think of his words at first. The thought of getting out of this place sounded amazing to her, but the possibility that this man way lying popped into her head as well. She thought for a moment and stared into his eyes, she didn't spot any evil intent or a hint of darkness in his eyes. The feelings from this man were all pure, genuine, feelings.

And with that, she smiled at him brightly and proceeded to tackle him in another hug. "Thank you so much!" she said happily.

The man was slightly taken aback by her actions yet again. He didn't expect this, even with what happened previously. He wrapped an arm around her and ruffled her hair with his other. "You don't have to thank me, I'm happy to do this." he smiled at her and began to stand up. "We should get going now, if we take too long to get to his room someone will suspect something."

"Noah, w-will you be with me the whole time?" she asked nervously.

The man's expression saddened, "I won't be able to…" he was filled with regret as he uttered out his last two words, "I'm sorry…"

Azaria looked down sadly, she could feel his regret—the pain he felt from not being able to protect her. She was doing her best to try to understand where he was coming from—but she was young. She didn't have enough experience in life to understand everything, to forgive everything that a genuinely good person had no control over, even if she knew how they were feeling.

Despite not being able to understand, she gave him a small smile.

Seeing that smile hurt him. Not because it didn't look genuine, but because of the look in her eyes that accompanied it. She was scared—terrified in fact—and it was his fault. Even so, he shook the thought away and held out his hand for her to take.

She grabbed his hand nervously. Noah turned off the light and led her out of the closet. They began walking down the hall and turned left. Azaria eyed a large, spiral staircase. The rails were gold and the steps were white—just like everything else in the palace. As they started walking up the stairs, she began feeling considerably worse. There was some kind of malicious feeling coming from upstairs—it was stronger than what she felt when she was still outside.

Her heart was beating faster and faster—fear was welling up inside of her—screams were begging to be let out. She knew something bad was coming. Imagining that vile smirk she had seen ungracefully bestowed on that boys face sent chills down her spine.


The man could feel the girl gripping his hand tighter and tighter as they came closer to their destination. He looked down at her with his worry-filled eyes, she'd only been getting worse as the seconds passed. He wished he could do something to help but he knew he couldn't yet; it just wasn't the right time.

The man stopped walking when he eyed the door they were walking too, it was white with a gold handle, it also had a gold nameplate on it with the name "Saint Charlos" carved into it. The man balled his hand into a fist, raised his arm hesitantly and paused for a moment.

Could he really condemn this innocent child to further abuse? If anything he could grab her and run away from Mary Geoise, but considering the security he wouldn't make it further than the gate. This is my only option right now. And besides, if he took off now then he'd never be able to come back.

With a regretful sigh, he knocked on the door and waited for a few moments. His wait concluded when a child demanded, "Open the door already!" to someone already inside.

The door was open quite quickly with little to no elegance. In the man's time there, he had learned that the so called 'gods' enjoyed abusing their slaves and making them be as 'elegant' as possible when doing everyday tasks. Seeing that kind of treatment disgusted him, it made him sick to his stomach.


Looking inside the little girl seen an enormous bedroom. Beside the window sat a desk with books and papers scattered about, in between two windows was a very large bed, there were four golden poles holding some kind of tarp over it as well. She'd never seen anything like that in her life, and this room alone almost as—or even bigger—than the home she'd grown up in.

Her eyes landed on a boy—the boy—the very same one who chose her of all people to be a slave. The one who chose her to not only be a slave, but his personal slave. She didn't know how to feel. Angry, or upset? Anxious or terrified? So many emotions were swirling inside her very being and it terrified her. She squeezed the man's hand even tighter and her nails began digging into his skin.

He didn't wince in the slightest from the pain. If Azaria had been in the right mindset she'd be surprised—but if she was in the right mindset, her nails wouldn't be inhis skin.


The man was doing all he could to not look down at the girl again—to not pick her up and comfort her with a warm hug. He still had an overwhelming desire to protect her—despite this—he was still trying to think rationally. He mentally thanked himself for being old enough to think with his prefrontal cortex. Even so, he couldn't help himself from growing so emotionally attached to this girl when he barely knew her.

The fact that she was so young and reminded him of some of the orphans back home helped with his odd attachment to her. Another reason that he was attached was that she returned his kindness. She didn't need to, she could've been suspicious of him and tried to ignore him. Hell, even he would be suspicious of himself if he were in her situation.

He shook his thoughts away and stared straight ahead. It hadn't been long since the door was open and the boy was currently preoccupied. Considering how early it was, he assumed the boy was attending to his studies. Noah found it odd that Charlos was studying without his tudor, but dismissed it as the boy hadn't studied much in the past two months.

"I have the girl here for you, Saint Charlos." he said with almost unnoticeable drops of regret, anger, and fear sprinkled throughout.

Luckily, the young 'saint' didn't notice the feelings in his voice. That, or he chose not to care. The boy sighed, obviously annoyed with the book in front of him and said, "Let her in and go tell my father I'm taking a break from my studies for a few hours."

The man nodded and replied with a simple, "Yes, Saint Charlos." before walking the girl in a few steps past the slave that had opened the door.

As he walked out, he looked back at her. Her eyes were on him and filled with fear. He knew what he was doing to the girl—he was hurting her with every step he took away from her. He couldn't do anything, she knew that but couldn't understand yet. Looking at Azaria was only causing him pain. He knew that he had work to do and he needed to get it done faster than before. He needed to save that little girl.

He looked away and continued walking out of the room and down the hall towards Roswards room. All he wanted was to get this whole thing over with—he didn't want to be in Mary Geoise longer than he needed to be. While walking down the hall he looked around, the whole time he had been working in this place he found it odd that there were no surveillance transponder snails whatsoever.

The only explanation he could find somewhat reasonable was that they feel safe here. He was relieved knowing they didn't have any here though. If they did have some, he wouldn't have been able to talk the Azaria earlier. On top of that, he certainly wouldn't have been able to do his work with prying eyes.

He sighed as he spotted a door almost identical to Charlos's, the only difference being the name engraved onto the gold plating. Deciding to not waste even more time, he decided to knock. It wasn't as long as a wait for him to be allowed in, unlike with that kids room. After being granted entrance, he opened the door and closed it behind him as he walked in.

Instead of being a bedroom, this was Rosward's office. There was a large oval shaped wooden table in the center of the room. Sitting at the center chair towards the back was Rosward, he had a few books and papers surrounding him. Being the saint he was, he didn't do too much typical office work in here. The area was usually reserved for meetings with other world nobles.

Thinking back to some information he had heard last week on the way here, he remembered Rosward would be meeting with some of the other world nobles soon to speak of the incident a few months back.

The man's voice suddenly interrupted Noah's thoughts when he asked, "What is it?"

Taking a moment to register the words that came from the nobles mouth, he answered, "Saint Charlos requested that I inform you he is taking a break from his studies for a few hours."

Rosward looked visually annoyed at this, his son hadn't done any studying for two months. It took them a whole month to get to Ziema and another month to get back. He looked up from his papers and stared at Noah."Tell Charlos he is to get back to his studies in an hour. If he doesn't let him know he isn't allowed to use his slaves for a week." the saint said firmly, with anger seeping from every word.

"Yes, Saint Rosward. Is there anything else you need?" he asked politely.

"After you speak to my son go assist the others in watching the new slaves."

"Yes sir." he replied and walked out of the room, closing the door silently behind him.


A/N: This took so long to write, I spent most of the week planning out chapters that probably won't be written for a very questionable amount of time lol. I hope you're all enjoying so far! I'm doing my best to make everything interesting and have a good amount of detail. I care a lot about making things easy to visualize. I'm also trying to separate areas where I focus on different characters emotions, but I opted against it in some areas because I'm scared it'll interrupt the flow of the story—sorry if anything is confusing because of that! Please let me know if there's anything I can do better! Reviews would be highly appreciated! Also, I don't think it will be but there's a chance chapter 4 may be late next week. I won't be able to write over the weekend and I'll be a bit busy throughout the week. -SabosFlame