The World Nobles, aka Celestial Dragons, are the supposed rulers of this world.
About eight hundred years ago, their rule started, the exact dates are lost unless one can read a Poneglyph and that is a hard skill to come by, twenty rulers of the world nations reunited and established the bases of what's called today the World Government. Rule enforced by the Marine Corp.
Eight hundred years later, the World Nobles are the worst possible human beings that one could have the displeasure and bad luck to cross.
The vast majority of the World Nobles; or the Celestial Dragons, or Gods as they like to consider themselves; are complete assholes of the biggest caliber. They had zero morals, and only care about their hedonistic pleasures, arguing that the blood of the gods that created the world; referring to the founders of the World Government; runs through their veins and they are entitled to do whatever the fuck they want due to that same privilege.
Among the usual "entertainments" that the Celestial Dragons practiced with fervor, slavery is chief among them.
Slave trade is a very old activity, however, is mostly frowned upon or directly prohibited in the vast majority of the kingdoms, empires, etc, of the world. There are notable exceptions, but in general, slaves are unusual in most of the seas, at last openly. Only the World Nobles and ruthless Pirates blatantly display their slave collections. Literally in some cases, for example, Saint Rosward proudly talks about his Pirate Captains collection or Saint Shalria who despise weaklings and only wanted to possess the strongest slaves available.
The usual entourage of a World Noble is three to four slaves, a CP agent, and several guards. It depends a lot of the individual to determine what exactly kind of entourage will the Celestial Dragon have at their side.
Saint Camael's entourage is usually made by one or two of his daughters, his steed; a panda these days; his female sex slave, and at last three to four guards, one of them almost surely a CP agent.
Saint Charlos entourage is usually comprised of some of his wives; thirteen by this year; his steed; a slave forced to crawl with Charlos´ throne over its back; and several guards, possible with at last one CP agent.
The practice of using slaves as a steed of sorts is quite old. Nobody is sure about when it happened for the first time but it soon became a trend among them. Unfortunately, whenever several Celestial Dragons reunites; it surely becomes a disaster for anyone in the vicinity and competition between the Celestial Dragons to see who is more of a douchebag than the others. Such competitions usually involved their slaves; competing about who had the best steed, concubine, servant, or whatever.
That being said, there are rumors that there are some of the Celestial Dragons that are not wastes of flesh, but those rumors are considered baseless rumors and childish ideas.
In the Sabaody Archipelago resided one of the largest slave auctions of the world; located in the Mangrove 1 out of the seventy-nine Mangroves, the place was always filled to the brim with all kind of corrupt individuals looking out for a good purchase. This particular auction house operated under the protection of the crime lord known as Joker, a powerful individual who had its hands in all the pies of the underworld, from drugs to slaves.
Technically speaking, human trafficking is illegal, but the Marines on Sabaody; who had one of the freaking command centers stationed there; called the Auction house "Public Enjoyment Security Office", allowing the supposed defenders of the world to blatantly ignore and turn the eyes off the criminal business under their very noses.
The presence of the Celestial Dragons is also a powerful deterrent for the marines to do anything about the slave house. The Celestial Dragons came almost weekly to the Auction House, to purchase their next entertainment source. Be it a sex-slave, a gladiator for their gladiatorial pits, or even exotic "pets" that they have around their hedonistic palaces.
See the aforementioned note about Saint Rosward´s Pirate Captains' collection.
The average price of a human is about half a million belly, other races are more expensive being the Giants and Merfolk the more expensive ones. Users of Devil fruits also changed the value of the purchase.
Speaking of Devil Fruits, the Celestial Dragons are known to feed Devil Fruits to their slaves for mere entertainment value. It made controlling them a lot more difficult, especially if they are of the Logia Type, but between the Sea stone cuffs, explosive collars, and all kind of restricting measures, the slaves don't have all many options, Devil Fruit powers or not.
However, the real method of absolute control is the "Hoof of the soaring dragon".
This Hoof was nothing but a brand; like the ones that are used on cattle; a red hot metal brand imprinted in the anatomy of the slaves that all the World Nobles have in their possession, to mark their slaves as theirs. Literally. This brand indicates that the slave was less than human and just possession of the World Nobles. Any country would happily deliver the slave back before angering the mercurial Celestial Dragons, who are famous for their lack of anything resembling decency and could summon an armada of Marines to lay waste to anything that had caused them any offense.
In recent times, one of the most infamous urban legends about such temper tantrums was the origin of the burning of the sector of the Goa Kingdom called the Grey Terminal. Leaving apart the fact that it was a poor sector of the Kingdom, it was burned to the ground because it was "ugly". At the same time as the visit of a World Noble, Saint Jackmal more concretely; the entire place was "sanitized", so the World Noble didn't have to see such an "ugly stain in his sight".
It was stupidity up to an aneurysm inducing point, but for the World Nobles, it was just Tuesday. Hardly the worst that the World Nobles had ever done.
One of the worst that the World Government had done in the last twenty years was Ohara. An island that no longer exists, erased by the Buster Call, the bogeyman of the Marines. One more tragedy swept under the rug, just one more. Hardly the first and not even by far the last or the worst.
Among the entertainments of the World Nobles, one of their favorites was the gladiatorial fights. It depended a lot of the Nobles, some just wanted to see "lesser beings" crippled and bloodied for their amusement, but others like Saint Camael, liked the "finest entertainment" that only someone like Gildd Tesoro could provide.
The entertainment island of Gran Tesoro; ten miles of a ship that carried the biggest casino and gambling island of the world. The entire place was a massive golden cage where hundreds of slaves worked under the demented watch of Gildd Tesoro, the owner of the Casino, and the user of the Gold Gold Fruit.
The fucker was so rich that after paying an exorbitant bride; monthly; to the World Government, Tesoro managed to become an independent island, where is illegal for the Marines to arrest Pirates that are enjoying the amenities of the island. The marines can only arrest pirates, If, Tesoro lets them do it.
The main attraction of the city were the casinos and the dozens and dozens of entertainment business that loitered the floating island on the New World, but the real shadowy business of the place took place in the reservoirs, on the VIP rooms.
Only one of the Executive Members of Gran Tesoro can take people in; where Nobles, Criminals, Pirates, and Marines equally could enjoy some prime time entertainments. Like Death Races, gladiatorial fights, creative executions, and even buy and sell slaves that called the eye of the witness of the events.
In the four years that Gran Tesoro has been up and running the place, the floating island holds 20% of the riches of the world and it is a massively successful business that has the approval of all the important people in the government.
Tonight event was one for the memory as it was a massive battle royal between Tesoro´s dealer; a former underground champion; and the favorite gladiator of Saint Shalria.
As usually happens with the World Nobles, the origin of such a battle was a mixture of stupidity, arrogance, and childish hedonism.
Saint Camael was a common guest of Gran Tesoro, he and his daughters, along with a small retinue of slaves, came monthly to Gran Tesoro to collect the Heavenly Tribute, along with the CP-0 agents of the New World.
During one of his visits, Camael was surprised with the strength and resilience of Dice, the Gran Tesoro´s VIP room dealer, and told about it to other World Nobles, among those Nobles, there was a young Saint Shalria.
Saint Shalria had a fetish for strength, she desired the strongest slaves, even though she was weaker than the average civilian, and always look out for fighters of any strong races; like Giants, Minks, and Fishman; whenever she went to a slave auction.
In one of her visits, Shalria bought an exceptionally strong slave, a slave with Ancient Giant blood, that has been Saint Shalria's favorite toy for the last five years in a row. The poor bastard was tough as nails, a prodigy in Armament Haki, and after Shalria saw how he managed to beat a CP-9 agent in a deathmatch, Shalria allowed him to earn a Devil Fruit.
A bit peeved with uncle Saint Camael words about the invincible dealer of Gran Tesoro, Saint Shalria asked her uncle; one of the few that had power over her; about the chance to arrange a death match between her slave and the so-called invincible dealer of Gran Tesoro. If anything else, Saint Camael saw it as a chance to see some prime spectacle, a death match between two real monsters, and had little problems in bringing the young woman to the island. In the mind of Saint Camael, it was all pros.
Tesoro was not all that convinced of the idea, but its hard to tell no to the World Nobles, however, it will be quite the event that was for sure and will attract a lot more cretins to be caught in his golden trap.
The pros outweighed the cons and Tesoro decided to accept the proposal, much to the actual delight of Dice, that had not fought a good fight in a while. The vast majority of the cage matches that took place in the shadows of Gran Tesoro were not all that of a challenge for Dice.
The match was announced to the Vips of Gran Tesoro and a date was fixed for any interested parties to attend.
There is little need to say that none of the parties were going to fight fair, but on this occasion, the mixture of Gildd Tesoro´s greed and hubris and the absolute lack of common sense of the World Nobles become an explosive concoction that signed the absolute destruction of Gran Tesoro.
Gildd Tesoro and his "Executive Members", the three highest members of his organization, had been running a scam of gigantic proportions and saw little need of do not try to pull it again under the noses of the World Nobles.
The tragedy of all this was that Gildd Tesoro was an individual whose life has been destroyed by the World Nobles and who understood more than anyone else the depravity and delusional arrogance of the World Nobles. Gildd Tesoro was a former slave, having his brand transformed into a star tattoo on his back, but after experimenting hell under the slavery of the World Nobles and gaining the power of the Gold Gold Fruit, Tesoro became a twisted reflection of the individuals that he despised the most.
Tesoro´s favorite show was to scam all kinds of people into gamble away all of their fortunes in Gran Tesoro and force them to work their debts in all the facilities of the floating entertainment island.
That was achieved through two methods:
The first one was thanks to the shower of gold dust that befall upon all the ships and crews that sail under the main entrance of Gran Tesoro. That gold was imbued with the power of Tesoro and acted as a permanent tag and could be turned into a golden cage, thanks to Tesoro's Devil Fruit.
The second one was the concierge of Gran Tesoro, a beautiful woman called Baccarat, who ate the Luck-Luck Fruit and who could siphon the good luck of anyone that she touches increasing her´s. That´s how she encouraged some select guests into progressively higher bets until she took all their good luck and forced them to work in Gran Tesoro to pay their absurdly high debts.
It was a very effective and clever trick by the way, but unfortunately for them, when they tried to pull it on the slave of Saint Shalria, they fucked up.
The night of the fight was business as usual for Gran Tesoro inhabitants. They had to put a good facade for the visitors but none of them had forgotten how they ended up as the personal toys and slaves of the megalomaniac that govern the city. With the extra affluence of all kind of individuals eager to see the battle, the VIP section of Reoro; the Eight Star Casino/hotel of Gran Tesoro; was crowed with all kind of personalities, from the two World Nobles to all kind of lesser nobility and infamous individuals, from both sides of the law, who had already started to set bets around the result of the battle.
It was hardly a surprise that most of the people were betting in favor of the local champion, Dice, who was well known and who has already demonstrated inhumane endurance and strength.
Dice´s history was not all that complicated, the bulky man was a former underground champion; a profitable and sure way of enjoying his extreme masochism. Dice took immense pleasure from pain and battle but had to retire from the underground battles because there were no challenges left. This combat was just a welcome change in Dice´s routine as a dealer.
Well, not your everyday dealer routine. Dice tossed ton weighted metal dices the size of a person into bigger metal containers and cracked it open with his forehead several times a day. It must be said that Dice loved his work actually, but the opportunity to fight against someone, supposedly as good as him, was something that Dice could not resist.
There is little need to say that Gildd Tesoro and the rest of his "Executive Members" had already fixed the battle and it was just a matter of letting the show run and collect the profits. Truthfully, the real kicker of all this; at last for Tesoro and his crew; was to screw with the World Nobles under their noses and relatively get away with it.
None of the Top members of Gran Tesoro had any illusions that they are not going to get hell for the victory of Dice, but the greed and delusions of the World Nobles were something that they were counting on to pull out their scam with relatively minor consequences.
The private residences of the World Nobles in Reoro were one of few places in the entire island that were not constantly under video surveillance; the World Nobles would have never tolerated it and trying to set some hidden Vision Snails would be stupid. Any CP-0 agents with the World Nobles would found it at some point and despite all the tribute that Tesoro was paying, the World Nobles are vindictive little bitches and the island would burn nonetheless.
Inside the beyond luxurious suites that the World Nobles had in Reoro; more than once they have called the accommodations spartan, or disgusting, despite being something that even the richest individuals would have difficulties to emulate; Saint Shalria was "encouraging" her favorite slave.
Saint Shalria was a brown-haired young woman; barely in her twenties; with a vicious streak a mile wide.
Her obsession with strength was unhealthy as it comes, but the thing was that Shalria was not a strong person. Shalria was even weaker than the average civilian, as she has not worked out once in her entire life. Despite her lack of exercise, Saint Shalria was relatively fit, perhaps due to all the "exercise" that she got during the regular beatings she gave to her slaves; be it with a whip or any other torture instrument that she had at hand at the moment.
The crew that accompanies her on this particular occasion was smaller than usual. Pretty much like her uncle Saint Camael, Saint Shalria has come to Gran Tesoro; a place that she did not like much; with her favorite slaves, her "steed" and a couple of guards and one government agent. Possible a CP-0 or CP-9 agent.
These days Shalria had a small retinue, most of her sadistic tendencies were sated by her favorite slave, the very same one that will fight tonight and that she knew that he will win. On this occasion it was not only her delusions speaking, her slave had a chance in the arena. If he had managed to survive two decades of constant beatings, "training" and being put through the ringer to reach the "acceptable" quotas that his Mistress demanded of him, then he had a chance to defeat everything this world could dish to him.
Anyhow, her favorite slave of Ancient Giant heritage, did not only double as her favorite gladiator but as the best steed that she had since she had another Giant-blooded slave when she was a child. Saint Shalria ´s slave was usually geared with a small throne on his back, carrying Saint Shalria around as the goddess she was convinced that she was, and the best of all was that in all the years she has had the slave, he has not failed once.
Saint Shalria´s riding crop crossed the face of her chained slave, she was smiling like a demented woman all the time. That was just a warm-up for her champion, he has taken the kind of punishment that would have broken Giants and has not even grunted in pain, it was one of the reasons why she favored him among other lesser pieces of flesh, who should felt more than blessed with her mere presence.
The slave, who was chained to the wall as a precaution, was quite the picture himself.
Leaving apart the hundreds of faint scar lines that crisscrossed his forearms, forehead, shoulder blades, chest, and calves, the man was a titan of ten feet of height, built like a battleship on steroids. The constant, brutal, training that he was submitted to; to be perfect for his mistress; along his Ancient Giant blood has made him physically spectacular.
Ten feet tall, very muscular; with a powerful complexion but proportionate limbs, not like Dice who was bulky but with tiny legs; shaved head, black eyes, and pointed chin. His facial features were quite humane, the only different attributes were his horns on the forehead, his sharp teeth, and a subtle reddish tint on his skin. As usual, he was dressed in some brown and ragged pants, boots, and nothing else.
Because of the chains, the slave was in a kneeling position; otherwise, Saint Shalria would have had to jump to hit his face, when he was standing, the World Noble barely reached the slave's stomach; and with the usual explosive collar and Sea Stone bracelets on his neck and arms. Just in the middle of the chest, the "Hoof of the Soaring Dragon", the brand of the World Noble´s slaves, stood proud as a red brand in the center of his muscular and scar covered chest.
Shalria wanted it over his heart, to represent how his heart and soul was her´s, but she was as accurate as a drunken donkey and she failed the branding, marking the center of his chest instead.
"Now, Teddy is going to be a good boy and made her mistress proud-amasu", that was a statement of fact.
It was not that Teddy was his real name, but Shalria said that he was her Teddy bear, period.
"Aye, Teddy will be a good boy", the neutral, robot-like, voice of "Teddy" answered Saint Shalria, who smacked him in the face again with his riding crop.
"Good boy-amasu". She acted as if the smacking was a reward.
Saint Shalria tapped the bottom of her chin with the crop, despite all the usual; and very varied; mentally derangements that affected the World Nobles, stupidity was not one that affected her. Saint Shalria was savvy enough to recognize that Tesoro is going to try to pull a fast one on her. It can be helped, from the perspective of Shalria, a commoner, a filthy peasant, like Tesoro, had to resort to tricks to be able to even be allowed to speak with goddesses like her.
The World Nobles are the Gods of this world, they founded the world and created the world that the masses of ignoramus cretins populated today. Poor commoners that are nothing but filthy vermin, only worthy of being used by divine beings like her, dared from time to time to test their patience. They soon learned that the World Noble's wrath is to be feared, but unfortunately, the memory of the commoners is short.
The CP-O agent that accompanied her and uncle Camael, has already informed them of the peculiarities of the ugly dealer of Tesoro and the clever little trick that Tesoro had running on the city.
Not that Shalria gave a fuck about the hundred of slaves on the island, they are vermin, even stupider than the average commoner, that had fallen for the tricks of a peasant like Tesoro.
The gold trick was something that worried Shalria, along with the slut that accompanied Tesoro; a single touch and she could steal the luck of her victim, such a thing before a deathmatch will spiel a disaster for her.
In any other circumstances, Shalria would have shot both, Tesoro and his slut, as soon as she saw them, for trying to trick a sacred being like her, but her uncle has ordered her not too. Despite his lowly origins, Tesoro was very useful and that made him a smudge more useful than the other pests that lived in the four Blues.
"Teddy", called Shalria to his slave. The chained man observed her with the same void stare.
"You are going to win-amasu", simply said Shalria as it was a fact, "because you are my slave", it was the usual delusions of Shalria. "However, this time, you are against tricky commoners that are going to try to stain my glorious name with their shameful actions-amasu".
At that point, "Teddy" all but disconnected from whatever Shalria had to say. Still, "Teddy" kept his expression and eyes locked on her, if he did not look at her, she would lose her shit and smack him with her blasted crop for a while. Not that she had a snow ball´s chance in hell to inflict any injury; that bitch that called herself a goddess was nothing but a vapid brat.
That same description could be applied to the vast majority of the World Nobles.
After two decades as a slave, five of them as the favorite slave of Shalria, covering diverse roles, like steed, gladiator, torture practice dummy, stress relief punching bag, and sex toy; "Teddy" was already more than tired of the stupid woman. It was a disgrace for humankind to have individuals like the World Nobles around, whatever nobility and strength they could have inherited from the founders of the World Government was all but lost in Shalria and other jokes like her.
Being completely fair, something good came out of all this mess, and it was that "Teddy" was pretty strong. Being trained in inhuman ways, put to the limits so many times that it was not even funny anymore, and even granted a Devil Fruit. The combination of factors was one of the few things that have made him able to survive the hellhole that is being a slave of the World Nobles.
Although, the granted part was not entirely true. The Devil Fruit was part of a "game" that the older brother of Shalria, a disgusting piece of filth called Charlos, forced him and the other eleven slaves to play when Charlos was bored during a raining evening. Shalria saw a chance for her favorite slave to become an even better slave and let Teddy participate in the madness.
The game was relatively simple, a dozen strong slaves will be denied nourishment until they are on the verge, then they will fight until the World Nobles said enough, and the survivors; if there is one, of course; would be given a tray with a variety of fruits. All fruits were carefully carved to look as if they were Devil Fruits but only one among the fruits was a Devil Fruit, the rest were poisonous.
"Teddy" survived, because he was the last slave standing and because Teddy's Haki flared like a beacon at the Devil Fruit. Even in the present, the memory of the inhumanely disgusting and nauseous taste of the bloody fruit has accompanied "Teddy". Teddy will never forget the hellish taste of the bloody thing.
For what the World Nobles known, "Teddy" had some Paramecia.
They were completely wrong, but "Teddy" had zero intentions of correcting that mistake and just waited for his opportunity. With the power of his Devil Fruit, "Teddy" discretely manipulated and learned about the explosive devices that the World Nobles put on all their slaves, even when he was covered in head to toe in Sea Stone. Ironically, that only made him stronger.
Thanks to the arrogance of the idiotic bitch in front of him, this night was Teddy´s perfect chance to make a run and in the process humiliate all the World Nobles in front of quite the audience. On the other hand, from then on, Teddy will have to drastically change his appearance in order of laying low for a century; more or less; in the deepest hole, he could find and then try to reach his dream of returning to Elbaf.
The door of the room opened, cutting the ranting of Saint Shalria, allowing a small child to enter. The kid barely was barely eight or ten, carrying a tray with a chalice and a bottle of very expensive wine. The small child had black eyes and hair. The kid had a Devil Fruit as well, it was the reason why the Noble that enslave him took an interest in him, instead of shooting him at the spot.
The boy entered the room with the tray on his hands, silently and discretely leaving the tray on the table at the side of Saint Shalria and never raising his eyes to look at her. Only when she permits the slaves could they look at her "divine visage", otherwise, the slaves are severely punished for their defiance and stupidity.
It was a lesson in pain that all slaves learned quite quickly, a lot die due to the brutal treatment but those that managed to survive soon learned how to prevent, as much as they could, raising the wrath of the World Nobles.
Not that they needed much for that, Celestial Dragons are always eager to cause pain or entertain themselves in twisted and demented games with the slaves as living pawns. Saint Charlos, for example, bought a swarm of piranhas and was always eager to toss humans or Fishman into the water tank, to see who was faster. Charlos was eager to buy mermaids, to see if the mermaids are as fast as they say and how long will she last against Charlos´ piranhas.
Without even looking at the small boy, Shalria took the chalice and gulped the contents; that wine surely would be a delicatessen, something to be tasted and savored, yet Shalria drunk like it was cheap booze.
"What cheap swirl is this-amasu?!", Shalria hissed at the young boy that flinched, knelt, and kept his eyes to the floor. "Who has given this disgusting liquid to you? why are you serving this vinegar to me-amasu?". Again, Teddy was sure that Shalria would not have differentiated between vinegar and wine, she was a brat of the highest order.
"The tall mocha lady with red hair said it was a welcome gift", quickly informed the boy, but before he could explain anything more, the crop of Shalria crossed his face, sending him to the floor, where he curled into a ball and started apologizing.
Partially satisfied with the submissive display of the little boy, Shalria stopped from hitting the boy again with her crop. The small boy was part of uncle Jackmal´s new batch of slaves, uncle found the little pest in the purification of some backwater kingdom of the weakest of the Blues. Saint Jackmal found that the boy had a curious Devil Fruit and took the boy as a slave on a whim.
Saint Shalria didn't know why the small boy was here, perhaps uncle Camael wanted him to fight in Tesoro´s arenas, bleed the child into something akin to a gladiator.
Most of the fighting slaves that form part of the World Nobles retinues are trained when they are older, but when a young child with potential appears in the slave auctions, they are soon bloodied in the arena to make them good fighters as soon as possible.
Huffing in displeasure by the cheap offering that Shalria has been given by that commoner of Tesoro and his lucky slut, Shalria decided that she should talk with uncle Camael about compensation for Tesoro´s substandard services, after all, this spartan room was not even close to the worth of a divine being like her and the wine, oh, the wine was barely vinegar.
Smiling with a cruel tone, Shalria sheathed her crop for later, after all; the combat will take place at night and it was still evening; later she could reinforce the devotion that her slave had for his goddess.
"Clean this-amasu", hissed Shalria to the boy on the floor, "and clean up Teddy´s body, I want him pristine and ready for the combat, I am understood pest-amasu?". The tone of menace in Shalria´s voice was unmistakable.
"Yes, mistress", nodded the child, quickly adopting a kneeling position.
Huffing one last time, Shalria exited the room, taking the wine with her; it was a cheap swirl, but she will be dammed if she did not take it. Everything in this world was for her and her´s family to take whenever they please.
The small boy waited until the World Noble was out of the room to move; it was not the first time that he moved when the World Nobles were still around and was punished for not being subservient enough or dared to interrupt the World Nobles divine actions with his filthy presence.
"She is gone", said Teddy, flexing his powerful arms.
The chains were uncomfortable and his body was covered in bruises and gashes by the "reinforcement" that the bitch inflict on him, but none of the marks was nothing but surface wounds, easily ignored, by night, Teddy will be completely cured.
"Bloody hell", sighed the small boy, moving to the bathroom and preparing the towels that he was going to need to clean Teddy´s body of the last batch of love taps that, that bitch of a woman has inflicted in his only friend.
"How are you holding up, chimp?", Teddy made some stretching exercises. Well, up to a point, he was still chained to a wall and forced to be in a kneeling position. "You must endure a bit longer".
"I know, I know", the child muttered, wetting a towel and moving to the side of Teddy, starting to clean his wounds and bruises. "I am scared", confessed the child.
"You and me both, chimp", chuckled Teddy, moving a bit so the child had easier access to the wounds on his body. The majority of them were on his face, arms, and torso, the places where Shalria could reach due to the size difference between the two of them.
"Are you going to win?", there was a lot more in that question that it sounded.
From the perspective of the small black-haired boy, Teddy was his only friend. The only one that has not hit him or insult him, or humiliates him along with several other things, in all the time that he has been under the domain of the World Nobles. Teddy has cared about him, protected him when Teddy could, and discretely giving food to the small body when nobody was looking.
It was something that Teddy did whenever he could, not only with chimp but with all the slaves around him. It was small mercy in the middle of the hellhole that was Mary Geoise.
"Aye", the absolute confidence of Teddy was infectious and the boy smiled warily.
The boy cleaned the wounds of Teddy, the chained slave look wounded, but in truth, all the wounds were just superficial cuts, just enough to appear as if Shalria has given him the beating of his life. Considering the lack of real strength that the Celestial Dragon; the other name for the World Nobles; had, it was a miracle on its own that she had managed to inflict any wounds with a common leather and steel riding crop.
Back at the Holy Land, Mary Geoise, Shalria had an entire array of Sea Stone reinforced tools, she insisted on have those as soon as some of her slaves had Devil Fruit powers. With the variety of powers that Devil Fruits conferred, the last that she needed was for a slave to develop a power that made him immune to pain or punishment.
"You promise?", again the words of the little child carried a weight that was different from the mere meaning.
The kid, like thousands of others like him, did not deserve at all to be treated like he was. The child was a survivor of one of the stupid shenanigans that Saint Jackmal did in the Goa Kingdom. It was just luck, very, very bad luck, that the kid crossed his path with Jackmal that day.
Fortunately, Teddy managed to prevent the death of the kid, on the other hand, Teddy could not anything for another kid on the same raft that Saint Jackmal shot down, the other boy died on the cold waters of the Goa Kingdom. That good deed cost Teddy a lot of pain, but the pain was an old friend by that point and it was worth, in payment of the small boy´s life.
Even if he ended up as a slave, there was always the hope for a better tomorrow. It was hardly the first time that some slaves managed to escape from the World Noble´s clutches. Teddy has helped several of them to do precisely that, and today was Teddy´s chance to escape. That being said, Teddy pretended to free as many as he could on his path to freedom.
Thanks to the arrogance and general disregard of Saint Jackmal for anything that was not his immediate gratification, Teddy managed to kept the small boy around him for enough time to give him a crash course on the hellish nightmare that the boy has accidentally landed into and change his name to Chimp. An attempt to hide his identity even more, for the inevitable day when they get out of the freaking chains that bound them and could retake their real names.
Teddy promised the small boy that one day he will free them; free all the slaves that he could when Teddy will make his escape. With the combat against the dealer of the VIP room of Gran Tesoro, Teddy had a chance to make a run out of this hell on earth and seriously flip the bird to the World Nobles.
That was why the kid was trying all he could to do not bawl his eyes out and beg to Teddy to get him out of here. The innocence of the kid was all but destroyed by the disgusting Celestial Dragons and their hedonistic pleasures, however, there was a spark of will, an indomitable and unbreakable will behind the facade of the boy.
That was one of the reasons why Teddy saved him that day, Teddy´s instincts, his Observation Haki, all told him that the boy was something else, that the kid was destined to something more than being another meat puppet of the Celestial Dragons. That the presence of the kid under the shadow of the Celestial Dragons was an aberration of the highest magnitude.
"Aye", repeated Teddy the word.
But this time, the word came with an invisible force, a push of raw willpower that spoke volumes of how seriously did Teddy took the promise that he has made to the small kid when he was branded with the Hoof of the Soaring Dragon and bawled his eyes out in pain and confusion.
That was all that Chimp needed, the boy smile widely, taking small comfort in the fact that he was not alone and that the big man was a friend in the middle of this nightmare. Silently, the boy continued working, and for a bit, they just enjoyed the company of another human being. One that was not trying to make their lives a living hell 24/7.
It did not take long for Shalria to came back to the room and she twitched her tongue when she saw the kid cleaning the towels that he has used and Teddy looking clean. Shalria took great delight in the faint fresh wounds over Teddy's body. There were already a lot of scars on him, all from the battles that he took part as her Champion and from the diverse events that Teddy has taken part in the Holy Land or the ones that Shalria herself has inflicted on him.
Not with him, that will imply consent and Teddy would have preferred to tear the bitch to pieces that even touch her with a ten feet pole however, Teddy is a slave, there was not such an option for him.
"Scram pest-amasu", slapped Shalria the small boy, making him stumble with the package of bloody towels, "your presence is no longer tolerated around me-amasu".
Chimp did not even raise his eyes, just recovered the equilibrium, and quickly made a beeline to the door of the room, sharing the last look with Teddy, who smile him back, before turning his attention to Shalria.
Who knows what kind of demented idiocy had the Celestial Dragon in her head now. Teddy will not put past her to torture him in some way to "motivate" him into winning the match.
Teddy was right actually, but the thing was that Shalria "motivated" him by using him for sex for a bit before Teddy was carried to the gladiator cells, where Teddy will be fitted and armed for the battle between him and Dice.
Teddy hated sex with Shalria, that is if it could be called sex.
Shalria was as delusional as the rest of the Celestial Dragons and was convinced that sex with her was the equivalent of sex with a Goddess, that she was a god of beauty and sex, living desire made flesh, and that all men should kneel and beg for her blessed touch.
Not even in a bad joke.
Thank God, Shalria was not an obese and disgusting brat like Saint Charlos, but she was far from being a breathtaking beauty. Sharlia was average, a slim average teenage girl, nothing more. Teddy has seen astonishingly beautiful women being dragged out of her homes to be branded as slaves and become part of the harem of the Celestial Dragons; men and women alike, the Celestial Dragon's depravity knew no bounds.
Sex with the stupid woman was a frustrating, degrading, humiliating and vapid experience. Sure, she slapped him during all the process, she screamed at the top of her lungs how her body was divine beyond measure, more than once she whipped, chained, cut, and inflict serious BDSM bullshit on Teddy, but that was it. Just a demented asshole venting her ridicule fantasies as she raped Teddy.
The worst of all was that Shalria was a horrid lover, she only cared about her pleasure and she had no stamina, not to mention, she can barely take four inches of Teddy's cock before she faints. Her oral skills are not existent, her pussy is like vinegar, her kisses are more bites than kisses, her pussy is loose and unable to take all of Teddy's dick and she cums after minutes of copulation. Teddy ended blue balled more often than not.
Teddy had a better time reading the funny pages of any forgotten newspapers that Teddy finds sometimes lying around in the slaves' pens.
But it tonight was the day, the day where Teddy could finally escape from thirty years of hellish existence. With any luck, Teddy will also free as many slaves as possible in the process, reenacting the feat of Fisher Tiger but on Gran Tesoro instead of Mary Geoise.
Freedom, at last.