The Georgia space station, the headquarters of the Byron Heavy Metals Trading Company, is less than half an hour's flight from Robin's Octopus space station.

The 10,000 tonnes of ingots that Robin transported from Bruno would be refined here, while the rest would be further smelted into conventional alloys.

"Nishizawa? You're well! Stepping out of the lock, Robin found that the person who greeted him at the berth gate was Nishizawa, whom he hadn't seen for a long time after recovering from his injury, and he immediately stepped forward in surprise.

"yes, I feel like I've been lying for almost a century." Nishizawa scratched his head innocently, the fat body was not emaciated by the injury, but was fatter and fatter than before.

"By the way, from today onwards, you will be my boss again. I have just been appointed by Miss Martina as your Business Advisor in charge of the metal sales side. After a few pleasantries with Robin, Nishizawa talked about why he was here.

It's no surprise that Nishizawa would be his business advisor. Since Nishizawa had worked as a business consultant when Robin had first established Roche Logistics, and most of the metal produced from Planet Bruno would be put on the market, Nishizawa, who was well-versed in business, was undoubtedly the best candidate for this position.

However, Robin noticed that Nishizawa seemed to be a little reluctant, so he asked jokingly, "Why, you don't seem to be very happy." Unwilling to work for me? ”

"Of course, working for you means that I won't be able to see Miss Martina for a long time to come, and I'm certainly not happy. But in order not to make Miss Martina lose money, I can only help you. Nishizawa was still so concerned about Martina's purchase of mining rights for Robin, so when he said this, his tone sounded a little yin and yang.

Robin knew Nishizawa's thoughts, and couldn't help but touch his nose and smile bitterly, "What about Martina?" Why didn't you see her? ”

"Miss went to the Hermes spaceport for a charity event, and I guess I'll be back soon."

"Charity?" Robin looked puzzled.

"Yes, the war between you and the pirates has made a mess of the Hermes spaceport. Now, because of piracy, the vast majority of the Federation has become hostile to the freedmen, and the police are also conducting a search at the Hermes spaceport to prevent the freedmen from providing information to the pirates. Speaking of this, Nishizawa couldn't help but quench his mouthful: "Those damn space cops don't dare to fight pirates, they will only find some children to vent their anger." ”

"Kid?"

"yes, don't you know. Many of the freedmen in the northern starfields would leave their children to live in the better-for-life Spaceport of Hermes, while they themselves would sail to the Ultra Nebula mines to collect rare materials. Now, because of piracy, most of the middlemen dealing in rare substances have stopped buying from the freedmen. And the free people who rashly appear in the northern star field will even be arrested by the space police as pirates at any time, so those children who are fostered in the Hermes spaceport will have no source of livelihood. This charity event, hosted by Miss Martina, was held to help the children of these free people. Nishizawa sighed, shook his head helplessly, and said: "Actually, most free people just want to live a quiet life, and if they have a stable life, who would be willing to risk their lives to be a pirate!" ”

“……”

Nishizawa's words were just a reflection of what he had seen and heard during this time, but when these words fell into Robin's ears, they suddenly took on a different meaning. A sudden idea popped into his mind, and in just a few seconds, a concrete idea was formed.

"In this case, there must be a part of the free people who are very hostile to the bloody Harry, after all, he is the one who destroyed their quiet life."

"Of course." Nishizawa blurted out without thinking, "Who would want to work for such a guy except a madman." ”

"But if Bloody Harry was able to attack the cargo ship accurately, wasn't it the free folk who were providing information? If it weren't for them, how would Bloody Harry get the exact route of the cargo ship? ”

"Freedmen?" Nishizawa looked at Robin with a look that seemed to be an idiot: "Where are you going, what do you want to do, will your crew know?" Or rather, would you tell the crew who only do chores in warehouses? ”

“……”

Nishizawa's words were like a thunderclap, and a real answer was already coming out of Robin's heart.

However, Nishizawa did not perceive the inspiration he gave Robin, but said with extreme indignation: "You know, most of the free people are doing some miscellaneous hard work in the docks, ports, and cargo holds of spaceships, and it is already a great kindness for them to be able to keep their jobs and not have to go to the Ultra Nebula to play for their lives. They don't have the ability to get classified information such as the ship's routes, and there's no reason to help Bloody Harry make his life worse. So, it is simply impossible for them to provide intelligence for Bloody Harry. But now, there are many people who, like you, think of them as vicious villains. ”

With a few angry gasps, Nishizawa pointed at Robin's nose as if he had found a class enemy, and scolded, "You know what? It is because of the existence of people like you that the lives of free people are so miserable. Why should all the freedmen be fired just because of these baseless speculations? After losing their jobs and worrying about being arrested by the police, how do you let them live? Do you really want to drive them to a dead end, and they have to become pirates to be willing? ”

"You seem to be getting a little too excited!" Gently brushing away Nishizawa's fingers pointing at his nose with his fingers, Robin crossed his arms and sneered, "Before you, no one has ever dared to scold me like you." ”

“……”

Seeing Robin's sneer, he recalled Robin's fierce style. A chill suddenly poured from Nishizawa's head to the soles of his feet, making the overly proud fat man wilt down in an instant, shaking like a sieve.

Patting the fat man's fat cheek hard, Robin sneered evilly: "Actually, what you said only applies to ordinary free people, those free people who work for mercenaries are not as kind as you think, they are guys who can sell everything for money, do you dare to guarantee that none of them will provide news for Bloody Harry?" ”

"This ......" Robin's words suddenly made Nishizawa speechless. Indeed, as Robin said, these mercenaries who are active in the northern star fields and earn bounties by hunting pirates are actually the most likely to provide information for Bloody Harry. Because with some of the military privileges they have, they have complete access to the classified routes of a large number of cargo ships, and in terms of their own surname, the free people who work for mercenaries and the Bloody Harry are basically the same kind of people.

And in addition to these freedmen mixed in the mercenaries, Kim Bberley, who is entrenched in Las Vegas? Mellon is also quite a suspicious candidate. With the Mellon family's underground intelligence network, she is the only one who can provide Bloody Harry with information such as the specific cargo on the cargo ship. Moreover, before reaching a provisional agreement with Robin, the woman had already had the intention to recruit the bloody Harry. With the usual duplicitous style of the Mellon family, Kimberly? It's not surprising that Mellon would do such a thing, and Robin.

Naturally, Robin wouldn't talk to Akira Nishizawa about something like this. However, looking at Nishizawa's current look of low eyebrows and pleasing eyes, willing to admit his mistakes, Robin was curious why he was so indignant, after all, judging from Nishizawa's real surname, his previous state was indeed a little abnormal.

"Fatty, tell me the truth, you can't be doing something illegal for the freedmen, are you?" Glued to Nishizawa's eyes, Robin cornered him and questioned him viciously.

"Nope! ~I'm just helping them hide in a safer place! ~" The fear of Robin in his heart made Nishizawa blurt out this sentence, but as soon as the words came out, Nishizawa regretted it and hurriedly covered his mouth with his hand.

"Hide in a safer place? Hum...... This is a cover-up! ~" Robin grabbed Nishizawa by the collar and roared.

"There is no such thing, and they are not criminals, so how can I cover up the crime if I provide them with some help?" As if frightened by Robin's intimidation, Nishizawa pleaded to himself, "Is it a crime to provide a little help to innocent compatriots?" ”

"Compatriots?" The appearance of this word made Robin's expression change.

"Yes, they are all free people from the Nine-Star Republic like me. They had been smuggled in with dreams, but they had no way of adapting to the life of federal sycophancy, accustomed to the egalitarian system of the Republic. Most of them have become the group of people who live at the lowest level of the Federation, and they are the ones who have suffered the most in this incident. Almost all of them are unemployed, losing all their means of livelihood. In such a situation, they ask me for help, can I bear to refuse them? ”

"They...... How many of them are there? Robin held back the resonance in his heart and asked with a cold face.

"I don't know, I don't know much, but it's said that there are tens of thousands of people from the Nine Star Republic living in the Hermes spaceport. There are even hundreds of thousands of people in the Nine Star Republic who work for the cargo ships of various freight companies, and some of them are mining in the Ultra Nebula mining area......" Nishizawa said truthfully with his head bowed.

Hearing Nishizawa say these details, Robin gradually began to understand why Nishizawa was so excited before.

Unlike those freedmen who were deported for their crimes, or who were originally wandering around, these freedmen from the Nine Star Republic were much more peaceful. Most of them chose to smuggle out because of the boring life of the republic, or because of a thought, but in their own surname, they are out of step with this world. Therefore, they are accustomed to a stable life, and they often choose a fixed place to live and strive to find a stable job to make ends meet. In addition, since most of the freedmen from the Nine-Star Republic have a skill, they are very popular with hired people in the Northern Star Domain, which causes most of the free people from the Nine-Star Republic to stay in the Northern Star Domain. In the aftermath of this massive interstellar pirate attack, they received the largest direct impact among the freedmen.

Nishizawa was forced to smuggle himself into the Federation, and in his heart, he still longed for the Nine-Star Republic, which made him, like Robin, unable to ignore the pain and disaster suffered by his compatriots. In addition, in the eyes of the freedmen, who were mostly in the lower classes, Nishizawa had the decent status they aspired to, and even Martina's visit to the Hermes spaceport for this charity event was influenced by him. Therefore, it is not surprising that these freedmen would find a way to turn to Nishizawa for help when faced with a desperate situation. Moreover, after Nishizawa successfully influenced Martina and won the help they dreamed of for the special group of the Nine Star Republic, Nishizawa unknowingly, Nishizawa had a different identity in the minds of this handful of people.

(To be continued)