The Lost Fruits

Chapter 5 - Too Much Gold!!!

In Sultan's palace...

"My princess..." The personal maid of princess jasmine made its way towards the princess bath and called.

"What is it, Dalia?" Princess Jasmine spoke from behind the curtains "The Sultan requests your presence in the throne hall..." Dalia said with a smile.

"...Another prince?" Jasmine smirked "...When will they learn?" Jasmine stood up from the hot water. She walked out and Dalia handed her a large towel to dry her wet body.

Dalia could finally see her princess after a long bath. Princess jasmine was a tall woman with long black wavy hair that reaches her hip. Her skin; in contrast with the people of Agrabah, isn't that much tan. Due to her always being inside the palace from fear of assassination, her skin paled a little and due to lack of interaction with the sun.

"I can go and say you're sick, my princess." Dalia helped Jasmine dry her long hair "...After all, I don't want you to meet the new princes." Dalia said with a mocking tone.

Jasmine chuckled "I guess you have seen the new prince." Jasmine said. "What is he like?" she asked

"He is a little..." Dalia tried to describe the man before but she cringed "...A little dim-witted."

"Dalia!!" Jasmine faked being offended "He is a prince!"

"I know that..." Dalia laughed with Jasmine as she helped her get in her most eye-catching dress.

"...." Jasmine sighed "How will i get away from this one this time?" Jasmine asked.

Dalia knows that the Sultan came to speak to the princess Today and she can't any longer keep refusing without any good reason. Dalia thought for a moment and then looked at the large tiger who is sleeping on the bad "We can always depend on Raja, don't we?" Dalia said to the princess and winked at her.

Jasmine chuckled "...Yes, we can." Jasmine started walking to the door "Raja!" she called. The Tiger's ears perked and he stood and followed Jasmine and Dalia.

In another Location...

Aladdin was walking with Ace through the streets of Agrabah. They entered a narrow road and exited to the northern area of the city, facing the ocean.

Ace walked and removed his shoes and let his feet sink in the warm sand "Aahhh~" he let a satisfied voice "This feeling!!" He walked to the water and put some in his hand and then throw it up in the sky "It's good to see you again!" Ace was happy, his heart enjoyed the sight of the ocean. In his previous world, there were no continents, only islands. The ocean was everywhere.

Ace started to jump in the shallow water and laughing like a little kid. Then suddenly, a large amount of water came splashing above him.

"What?!!" Ace looked around and found no one "Who throw that?" he scratched his face in confusion.

"Hey!!" Aladdin came back when he noticed that Ace was not walking behind him "I know that the ocean is beautiful and all, but we have to get going. The guy I told you about may leave and we won't be able to find him until tomorrow." Aladdin came and dragged Ace from the ocean. Ace was still confused but then he decided to not care about it.

When Ace and Aladdin entered the market area of the northern area; a little wave from the ocean emerged and stood up, it faced the direction Ace left to and stayed like that for a moment before it sank down and merged with the calm ocean.

"This is what I have told you about, the largest building in the market, with a strategic location, near the ocean where the imported goods come from, in the main street that connects all of the 4 market areas in Agrabah, sadly, the owner was crushed by debt." Aladdin and Ace stood in front of a large building, people were walking past them or buying from the shops behind them.

"Tell me more about this building." Ace said as he entered the building.

"You know the ocean side we came in from. This building used to face that direction and had a whole section dedicated to selling seafood, but because of that year's ride by unknown sea thieves, the owner at that time closed that area." Aladdin walked. The building was huge in size. Ace hummed and nodded.

"I heard that in the past, this building was the whole market as it hosted every merchant and people used to stroll inside this building to buy what they want." Aladdin narrated what he has heard about this building.

'Basically, a supermarket.' Ace thought. "Where is the owner?" Ace asked.

"So, you really want to buy it?!"

"Yes."

"I have sent Abu to look for him at his home, if he is there, we will go to his house," Aladdin replied. He has sent Abu as soon as they reached this area.

"Good." Ace continued to look around and see what this building has to offer 'It is very good! the owner was a man ahead of his time.' Ace thought.

Abu has returned and Aladdin shouted "Ace, he is home. Let us go." Ace nodded and followed behind Aladdin. They reached a small house near the guard's station, they knocked on the door.

"Who is there?" a voice came from behind the door.

"We are here to do business with you, Mr.Riaad." Aladdin did the talking.

"Don't fool me, I have nothing that I can call business!!" The man behind the door shouted, "Leave before I call the cops!" He ordered.

"We are serious, we are interested in your family's abandoned building near the beach." Aladdin tried to calm him down but he was too paranoid.

"You think I am a fool, I will not be fooled by loan sharks again!!" The man shouted.

Ace sighed as he had guessed that this was the problem. 'He probably wanted to reconstruct his building and needed some money so he took a loan with a high-interest rate. Agrabah is still a growing city and there isn't that much of money going in and out of the store to repay the debt.' Ace noticed some leftover construction materials on the second floor and in some areas in the building before.

"Sir." Ace stepped forward and decided to talk "We are not Loan Sharks, If you have agreed to sell us the building, I am willing to pay your debts and also give you the full price of the building. You just have to say the word." Ace liked that building, he has plenty of money and if he took the bigger picture in the equation then losing some money isn't that much of a deal.

"..."The man didn't respond. The offer seemed to be too good to be real "I will not talk about anything until you call the guards to come, I want to be safe." The man said.

"Oi, we are not thiev-" Aladdin wanted to say that they weren't thieves but again. He was a thieve. He looked at Ace.

"Go get a few guards to be our witness." Ace said. Aladdin ran to the guard station near them. Ace sat down on a rock to wait for Aladdin.

"...You still there." The man's scarred voice came from behind the door again.

"Yes." Ace responded, he played with his silver skull necklace.

"..." The man didn't talk for some time "Are you serious about paying my debts?" he asked with his voice this time shaking more than before.

Being a D, and Conqueror Haki holder, Ace saw felt that man was scared, very scared. His emotions were screaming of weakness and fear. Ace felt a little sympathy for the man.

"Yes, and the building price too." Ace spoke.

"...You wouldn't like the amount of debt I have. Don't bother." The man sounded more concerned for Ace than himself.

"No matter the amount, I can pay it." Ace smirked and said with confidence that reached the man behind the door.

"I have brought them." Aladdin came with two guards behind him. They were wearing Agrabah's basic soldiers uniform and are equipped with spears.

"Riaad, is something the matter." One guard with a big mustache that resembles the edge of a sword spoke. He looked at Ace stood up and cleaned his clothes.

The man heard the voice and opened the door "Brother Saif!!" A short man came out. Ace was shocked, his face darkened at the sight of the man.

A very short man, his physic is very weak, his rib cage is visible as the day, his teeth are mixed in black and yellow. His white hair was like that of a sick and dying dog. His legs were trembling and he had many scars and bruises on his body. He was very dirty but not to the unbearable line.

Aladdin felt sad for the man. He never that someone in Agrabah was suffering this much.

"You wanted me to come and help you." Saif knows about Riaad's situation but he couldn't catch the loan sharks red-handed so they always deny his accusations. He was the one to give this small house near the station to lessen the movements of the loan sharks.

"Yes, brother Saif, I want you to help me, I don't want to be tricked this time." The man said, his voice was shaking as he looked at Ace whos face was dark.

"I will do, what are your offer?" Saif looked at Ace and asked, "If i sense a hint of dishonesty in you, trust, i will not hesitate to thrust this spear in your heart."

"Hey, hey, hey, no need for that, we are here to do business not kill each other." Aladdin pushed the spear a little away from Ace.

"How much do you owe the loan sharks?" Ace asked as he neared the man.

Riaad looked at Saif who nodded in return "Five thousand Gold Coins." He said in a low voice. But everyone heard him clearly.

"WHAT??!!" Aladdin and Abu jumped from the insane number. Abu started counting on his fingers but he stopped when his fingers weren't enough and his jaw dropped. That amount of money is more than Agrabah's monthly profit.

"Just how much did you borrow?" Aladdin asked with his face red from fear.

"Enough Aladdin. Here." Ace reached for the bag that brought with him and took out Five big pouches of Gold "This a thousand. I will go and bring the rest."

Riaad opened the bag and his eyes started screaming with tears "Brother Saif! I am not dreaming, am I?" Saif looked at the gold and was shocked, a man is walking round in the city with this much money.

Riaad started trembling and handed the bag of gold to Saif "Please, give it to them, give it to the Loan sharks, this will hold them back for a week." Riaad said as he remembered the loan sharks.

"I will do..." Saif nodded "And the rest?" Saif asked Ace.

"Take that and when you will return you will have the other four thousand." Ace said, "But before that..." He looked at Riaad "Do we have a deal?"

"...Of course! I will sell you the building, I will do it!" Riaad was so happy, he doesn't mind giving Ace the building for free if he could sleep at night without fear 'Yes, I will give it to him for free.' Riaad thought.

Saif took the other guard with him to give the loan sharks the money.

"I will go bring the rest of the money." Ace said, "Aladdin, wait here." Ace went to bring the money, but he didn't need to go anywhere, he just need to disappear for a moment so he can fool them and not have them question him about how the money comes out from nowhere.

After half an hour, Ace returned with four other bags that had the money in them. He dropped four thousand gold coins in front of Riaad "Now we are halfway through." Ace said.

Aladdin had his jaw dropped to the floor, this is too much gold. Abu started swimming in the gold while Riaad was crying.

After another hour, Saif came with two other men, they were wearing black male jilbabs. Ace could sense the feeling of corruption that they give from a mile away.

When one of those men saw the gold they smirked.

"Riaad, so you've got the gold finally." One of them spoke as he walked to the gold. But then he felt a sharp cold metal spear on the back of his neck.

"Stay back," Saif ordered.

"This your money, take it and leave me alone!!" Riaad shouted. "I don't want to deal with you again!!" The two men looked at each other and smiled.

"But this isn't good, Riaad." the one whose Saif's spear is on his neck spoke. He took a gold coin fro his pocket "This kind of gold isn't enough." He showed them the gold that Ace gave them and tossed it up.

"What do you mean?" Aladdin shouted, "Are you still thinking of playing more tricks on him!!" Aladdin wanted to jump on this guy and beat him to death but he was stopped by Ace. Riaad felt fear again, that smile, that damned smile. Its what brought him down.

"I have you know, this is a foreign gold coin, it must be melted in the Royal bank and then be marked which means that this gold will lose 30% of its original value..." The man spoke and laughed "You still owe us one thousand and five hundred gold coins, haha--" Before he ould laugh to his content, he was hit in the face with a large and hard bag.

"UGH!! you bastard!!!" When the bag felt down, gold came out. "Count them and leave, that's six thousand and five hundred gold coins in total including the one you got from him." Ace pointed at Saif.

"Ah! yes?!" The loan sharks started gathering the gold "We will count them home and if we find even one gold missing we will come back for it." They shouted. It took half an hour just to gather everything and leave.

"Now, regarding the building...how much?" Ace looked at Riaad who fell down to the floor crying.

"The building was estimated in the past to be around a 300 hundred gold coins in value but after its demise, it is about a 100 down," Said spoke in Riaad's place.

"J-Just let them have it. They can have it for free!" Riaad stood up and said these words with joy and happiness "I am giving it to you for free. Go with brother saif and he will be your witness for the building's ownership." Ace looked at the man and sighed.

"Let's go Aladdin." Ace called Aladdin who was frozen silly "We will come to the station tomorrow and get the legal papers." Ace stopped in his track and looked in his bag. He took out another small bag and throw it at Saif "Give it to him and take care of him."

Saif looked at the bag and smiled "Thank you." Were all the only words he could say. Ace didn't mind and left with Aladdin and Abu who were walking like robots. They have just witnessed too much money go away like clouds.

"Do you know that you have spent more than what the whole of Agrabah spends in a month?!!" Aladdin said those words as Abu exaggerated his body language to what Aladdin said.

"No." For Ace, the amount of Gold he has in his ring has become to large to count. But he was sure that he has more than 6 billion of gold in his ring after looting Kaido and Mariejois in the past after destroying both of them.

"You are like a saint right now. No one in the world would give this much money in one day." Aladdin locked his hands behind his head as he walked with Ace.

"Don't say that, after all...I will get all that gold by tomorrow morning." Ace said. Aladdin didn't understand what Ace meant but he didn't dwell on the matter that much.

'There is no way in the seven seas that I will let my gold be owned by the likes of loan sharks' Ace thought.

'I will burn every last one of them tonight.' Since the two have left earlier, Ace followed them using his observation Haki and know where they are now.

"I will show Agrabah the biggest fire in the world!" Ace said.

---------------------------------

The Lost Fruits / Chapter 22 is out on Pat reon

Food Wars: The Golden Hands / Chapter 162 is out on Pat reon

Go to: Pat reon.com/RedVoidDoragon

Or the mobile app Pat reon version: Doragon

Or you can consider the free donations

Please donate to keep this story going, hit me with what you can.

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like