Chapter 21: Karl’s Discovery: The Children with Dragon Blood

“Captain Karl, are you alright?”

Krell sounded a bit anxious.

When he heard a loud crash from Karl’s room, he rushed over and smashed through the door without hesitation.

But what greeted him inside was a desk scorched completely black.

“I’m fine, just testing out a new move.”

“Crackle!”

As he spoke, Karl looked down—his hands sparking with electric arcs.

“Captain, did you eat a Devil Fruit or something?”

This was the first time Krell had seen Karl use lightning powers. His first thought was that Karl must’ve eaten a Devil Fruit. After all, Devil Fruits came in every shape and power—lightning wasn’t rare, but it was still impressive. Krell genuinely felt happy. If Captain Karl got stronger, that could only mean good news for him too.

“Something like that.”

Karl didn’t offer much of an explanation. He preferred to keep his new ability under wraps as a trump card.

“Anyway, how much longer until we’re back at Beehive Island?”

Switching gears, Karl lowered his right hand. He wanted to know how far they still had to go before returning to Beehive Island.

“Captain Karl, we’ve hit some rough weather ahead so it might take a bit longer than usual.”

The wind and waves had picked up outside. Krell hadn’t expected it, but at least the storm wasn’t too bad.

“No rush. Safety first—it doesn’t matter how long the trip takes.”

“By the way, did you see those two kids?”

Since they weren’t going to reach Beehive Island any time soon, Karl suddenly remembered Long Yi and Long Er.

He figured this was the perfect time to take a closer look at their physiques.

“Captain, you mean Long Yi and Long Er?”

“I saw them—two pretty well-behaved kids. They just finished cleaning up and now they’re getting checked out by the ship’s doctor.”

Krell couldn’t help but break into a big, silly smile. For some reason he liked those two kids quite a bit.

“Alright, you’re in charge of them from now on.”

When Karl caught that grin, he figured—if you think they’re so amusing, then they’re yours to handle.

“Uh… Captain, I don’t know anything about taking care of kids!”

Sure enough, the second Krell heard Karl say he’d be looking after Long Yi and Long Er, he looked downright miserable.

“Haha, that’s settled then! C’mon, let’s go check on them.”

Karl got up with a grin, clapped Krell on the shoulder, gave him no chance to protest, and was the first to step out of the room.

“Aw, come on, Captain—pick someone else! I really can’t handle this!”

Krell hurried after him, trying everything he could to weasel out of the job.

He really didn’t want two little shadows trailing after him. He liked kids, sure, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be responsible for them.

No matter how Krell argued, though, Karl ignored him the entire way.

“How are they doing?”

Karl headed straight for the medical bay and asked the ship’s doctor.

“They’re perfectly healthy—no illnesses at all. Just a little malnourished.”

The ship’s doctor stood up immediately when Karl came in. He knew how much Karl cared about these kids. But honestly, he was a little shocked—after how skinny they were, he didn’t expect them to be this healthy.

Karl, of course, already sensed special energy in both children. He knew they weren’t normal, so the doctor’s confusion didn’t surprise him.

Kids born with a special bloodline—once they get enough nutrients, their bodies bounce back in no time.

“Let’s go, you two—cafeteria time.”

“Yes, Lord Karl!”

Long Yi and Long Er answered happily—today was their very first proper bath.

They leaned over and sniffed each other—their skin now carried a faint pleasant scent.

Way better than the reek they had before.

At the dining hall, Karl looked at them and said,

“Go grab your meals.”

“Take as much as you want, but don’t waste any.”

“Got it, Lord Karl!”

At his word, Long Yi quickly dragged Long Er off to the kitchen.

They knew that this comfortable life was all thanks to Lord Karl. Grateful didn’t even begin to cover it.

Long Yi and Long Er each lugged back a huge platter stacked with every kind of roasted meat you could imagine.

“Dig in!”

Karl mainly wanted to observe whether, after getting some nutrition, the energy inside their bodies would awaken.

The moment Long Yi and Long Er got permission, they started devouring the food.

Not long after, Long Er was eating so fast he began to cry.

“Thank you so much, Lord Karl… It’s been ages since we’ve had a meal this good.”

Long Er couldn’t help but remember the days back at the auction house when they went hungry for days at a time. Back then, they’d tie their bellies with rope and comfort each other, just to forget how hungry they were.

“Thank you for taking us in, Lord Karl.”

“Alright, eat up!”

“Yes, Lord Karl!”

Long Yi and Long Er didn’t waste a second.

They dove right back into their feast.

As they tore through the food, Karl quickly picked up on something—the energy inside their bodies was growing much stronger. That power began circulating from head to toe.

Their bodies swelled quickly, like balloons filling with air, and soon they started looking like normal, healthy kids.

Karl knew he was right—Long Yi and Long Er definitely had a rare bloodline.

Only people with special bloodlines could digest food this fast, spread the nutrients throughout their bodies, and recover to peak condition in a flash.

A regular person might need weeks to recover, but with the right bloodline, a little food was all it took—any time, anywhere.

That was the magic of powerful bloodlines. Karl recalled how Charlotte Linlin was always trying to have children with people like that—and now he understood why.

The only hitch: he couldn’t figure out exactly which bloodline this was. Too many had vanished in the One Piece World, and some never even appeared in the original story.

“System, do you know what bloodline those two kids have?”

“Host, they carry one-third dragon-human blood.”

“Dragon-human?”

Karl had never heard of that—not in his memories and certainly not in the One Piece World.

“This world used to have a Dragon-human Clan. Anyway, these kids are the last remnants of that bloodline.”

At that, Karl understood. There must’ve been something big that happened during the Blank Century in One Piece history—whole races wiped out, with only distant descendants left behind. He couldn’t believe his luck, stumbling onto two kids with dragon-human blood.

He looked them over more carefully.

Sure enough, with a closer look he spotted two little bumps on either side of their heads—the beginnings of horns, barely visible thanks to malnutrition.

He also noticed that whenever the energy inside them started flowing, it would return to those tiny horns.

Those nubs had to be the symbol of their dragon-human heritage.

Now that Karl knew what bloodline they carried, he turned and left. He had other matters to take care of.

Meanwhile, Long Yi and Long Er stayed behind, still devouring the food as if starved. Their bodies still desperately needed the nutrients.

The food they’d just hauled in was already gone, so they hurried back to the kitchen for more.

At the same time, somewhere on deck—

“Hey, is this Captain Rocks…”

…