Chapter 205: Your Name
"Come here." After Saint Mjosgard left, Alucard called out, and a bodyguard came in.
"Is there something you need, Aptheim-sei?" a few of the black-suited bodyguards who had brought the three girls over quickly walked up and asked Alucard for instructions.
Alucard put his feet on the table, but as "Saint Aptheim," he was a slightly chubby man with glasses, completely lacking the grace of his real self. "What are the names of these three slaves?"
The three little girls were startled. Ever since they were kidnapped, they had tried their best to hide their names. They believed that by hiding their identities, they would one day be able to escape.
"My lord, slaves have no right to have names. You can call them whatever you want," the bodyguard said respectfully.
"..."
Alucard looked at the three girls with a half-smile. He noticed that although their heads were bowed, there was a hint of delight in their eyes, most likely because they were happy that they didn’t have to reveal their names.
"Take off their chains and leave," Alucard commanded again.
The bodyguard was stunned and said with a bit of worry, "My lord, these three slaves are suspected to be children of pirates and are skilled in combat. You don’t like to have attendants, so wouldn’t it be too dangerous to take off their handcuffs?"
"I said... take them off," Alucard said coldly.
The bodyguard quickly lowered his head, took out a key from his suit pocket, and unlocked the chains on the three girls’ hands. He then added, "My lord, if there is any risk, please press the alarm in the room immediately. Or, we can put collars on them."
The so-called collars were similar to the ones used by human traffickers in the Sabaody Archipelago, which were placed on a suspect’s neck and could be detonated by the controller. With these, the slaves would absolutely not dare to resist.
Alucard didn’t answer the bodyguard. He got up and walked toward his palace, which belonged to the family head. He said to the three girls with his back to them, "Follow me."
The three girls looked at the palace corridor, which was heavily guarded, with a guard almost every five steps. With such strict security, even with their handcuffs off, they couldn’t be happy.
When Alucard arrived at "his" palace, the guards at the door quickly opened the palace gates. When they saw that the three girls had no chains on their hands, feet, or necks, they couldn’t help but say the same thing as the previous bodyguard. "My lord, wouldn’t these three slaves..."
"Shut up. This is Mariejois," Alucard said without looking back as he entered the palace. The three girls also had no choice but to follow him closely.
The guards looked at each other. The three girls only looked to be about thirteen or fourteen years old, so they probably wouldn’t cause any trouble. Besides, just as Saint Aptheim said, this was Mariejois.
When Alucard sat down in his usual chair made of precious animal skin and inlaid with rubies, the three girls stood across from him without saying a word. The black-haired girl in front stood in front of the two girls who were slightly taller than her. Although she was terrified, she still mustered up her courage and looked directly at him.
Alucard crossed his legs and placed his hands on his knees. He asked, "Your names?"
"Huh?" The red-dressed girl’s dirty face was filled with confusion.
Alucard asked again, "I’m asking for your names."
The red-dressed girl gritted her teeth. The corner of her eye glanced at her two sisters behind her, and a few words came out from between her teeth. "I... We don’t have names."
Generally, Celestial Dragons didn’t bother to remember the names of their slaves. A slave was a slave, and they didn’t have names.
Alucard’s mouth curved slightly upward. He scanned the three girls and suddenly said, "These clothes look familiar."
The girls’ faces were filled with surprise. Alucard then said, "They look just like the outfits of a certain pirate crew made up entirely of women."
"Ah!" The red-dressed girl, who had been holding on, screamed and collapsed to the ground. Then, fearing that her clothes would be seen and her identity would be guessed, she wrapped the white cape she was wearing around her body.
The two girls behind her, one with orange hair and the other with green, trembled even more than before.
"So it really is them..." Seeing the three girls’ exaggerated reactions, Alucard had vaguely guessed their identities. They were the future Kuja Pirates trio. The red-dressed girl in front was none other than the future Empress of the Pirates, Boa Hancock.
The reason Alucard recognized the three girls was indeed because of their clothes. He had also fought against the Kuja Pirates in the past, but that was a long time ago. Not to mention the huge difference between Hancock’s two sisters now and in the future, Hancock herself showed no sign of her future beauty as the "most beautiful woman in the world."
Besides the fact that their dirty appearance and messy hair from being kidnapped took away a lot of their charm, the most important thing was that Hancock had not yet matured. After all, there was a big difference between a teenager and a woman in her twenties.
Just as the three sisters were looking at Alucard in fear, Alucard suddenly pretended not to understand. "Never mind. Names aren’t important anyway."
When they heard that Alucard wasn’t going to press for their names, the three sisters breathed a slight sigh of relief. However, before they could feel any joy, they heard the Celestial Dragon called "Saint Aptheim" across from them say to himself without hiding his voice, "What interesting thing should I do next? Or... how should I torment you three slaves?"
"Onee..." The youngest of the three sisters, Marigold, put her hands on Hancock’s shoulders from behind, her eyes tightly shut in fear.
The second sister, Sandersonia, gritted her teeth and said to Hancock in a slightly braver, hushed voice, "Onee-sama, there are no other guards here, and we don’t have anything restraining us. How about..."
"Calm down! Do you know what happens when you attack a Celestial Dragon?" Hancock immediately refused. "They’ll find our home and wipe it out completely!"
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