ROMANCE DAWN

7

"You don't know how to mind your own business." His face tightens as he tightens his grip on my neck.

I can hardly breathe, I don't even have the strength to struggle. My arms fall to my sides.

"What's with the look of disdain?" He smiles, "Don't look at me like that. You made the mistake. You knew you shouldn't have gone but you did anyway. Do you know what we do to children when they disobey?"

— You said you'd stop." I can hardly articulate.

"Yes, I did and I did. These children no longer suffer here.

— You've made slaves of them! It's not fair." I scream at him, scratching his arm.

He doesn't flinch and still wears that stupid grin on his face. I move closer to him, until his lips brush my ear.

"I'm the one who sets justice here." He says before throwing me against a wall.

My body is propelled across the room, then hits a wall before crashing to the floor on the splinters of wood from a chair he'd thrown across the room a few hours earlier. I wasn't wearing any clothes, and the wood pierced my flesh. I try to get up but my body hurts like hell. I'm thirsty. I need water.

"Did you find what you wanted?" He says as he dresses. "Since you're so interested in my business, you'll be leaving on the next boat to the Sabaody archipelago.

— No." I say after taking a deep breath of air.

"You will escort the next convoy of slaves.

— I will not.

— You have no choice."

[...]

For the last twenty days or so, I've been stuck on a boat bound for the Sabaody archipelago. We're carrying fifty male slaves from all over the world. There isn't a single woman on the boat apart from me. The slaves are beaten, hungry and thirsty. Some of the men working for Doflamingo make them fight for entertainment. When I see their living conditions, I can't help but feel happy to be where I am.

"Land in sight!" Shouts a man high up on the crow's nest.

I lean over the railing to observe the island in front of us. We'll soon be there, and I can already see the network of mangroves forming a massive forest in the middle of the ocean. I climb the stairs to my cabin, but as I close the door behind me, it opens again, letting me in. It opens again, revealing two men working for Doflamingo.
One is bald and fat, holding a chain in both hands that looks to weigh three times as much as he does. The other, thinner and taller, is holding an iron necklace.

"What are you doing?" I ask, arching an eyebrow.

"We don't want to fight." Admits the bald man.

"Doflamingo wants you to wear this." The taller one hands me what he's holding.

I sneer. " Chain me up?

— Doflamingo ordered us to. He says that...

— That all slaves must be chained, including you.

— He said that ?"

My jaw tightens. I clench my fists as I stare at the two men in front of me.

"It's an island much visited by those who want to prepare to enter the Grand Line and many nobles are currently there, a free slave would be quickly captured."