Chapter 72: The Magician Doctor Buffon (Please vote for recommendations and monthly tickets)

Buffon issued a few brief instructions to the group, then hurried toward the town center with Reiju in tow. He brought her along because, as a connoisseur, Buffon had considered the scorpion venom hidden within Crocodile’s golden hook. If there were victims poisoned by it, having him use the Swallow-Swallow Fruit to extract the toxin would raise suspicions, not to mention how inappropriate it would feel to do so publicly.

The two quickly arrived at the heart of the town. As Buffon had anticipated, apart from those who had already been reduced to withered corpses and buried beneath the yellow sands, there were indeed many civilians wounded by this band of pirates—by his estimation, around three hundred.

The town’s only two doctors were frantically tending to the wounded. Before Buffon could speak, Reiju stepped forward and gently led a woman waiting in line with her child over to him. The woman instinctively felt a sense of dread at the sight of Buffon, who stood at an imposing two hundred ninety-nine centimeters, but reassured by Reiju, she placed her injured child into Buffon’s hands.

The child, a little girl of about three, had several scrapes on her elbow and two shallow cuts on her face. Witnessing this, Buffon couldn’t help but inwardly commend Crocodile’s restraint for not having done worse.

“Does it hurt, little one?” Reiju asked kindly.

The girl nodded, then clenched her teeth and shook her head.

Buffon shook his head gently, and three suture needles slipped from his fingertips, stitching up the wounds on the girl's face and elbow in the blink of an eye. He then swiftly activated the Paw-Paw Fruit, removing her pain and fatigue.

“Mommy, this doctor does magic!” the little girl exclaimed joyously to her mother.

Yet the woman, who had watched everything, said nothing at first. She quickly reached out to touch her daughter’s face, then asked, “Does it hurt?”

“Not at all!” This time, the girl’s face was lit with excitement.

“Thank you, Doctor. What is your name?” The woman spoke as she handed over her water pouch.

Buffon paused, recalling the story, then suddenly understood. In Alabasta, a kingdom that hadn’t seen a drop of rain in three years, nothing was more valuable than fresh water.

He waved her off, pulling a one-hundred Beli coin from his pocket. “My name is Buffon. This will do.”

The woman gaped at him, unable to believe that this giant who'd just frightened her had so miraculously healed her daughter's injuries. And most importantly, this doctor named Buffon refused her precious water and instead asked for a mere one hundred Beli.

In this world, that was barely enough to buy a newspaper—and yet it had paid for her daughter's recovery. It seemed utterly impossible.

“If you don’t have the Beli on you, you can go home and bring it later. If you can’t find us here, just look for our ship at the docks...” Reiju’s timely reminder snapped the woman out of her daze. She hastened to pull one hundred Beli from her bag and handed it to Reiju.

Reiju accepted the money, then turned to the little girl. “Would you help me and invite the other injured people over to see the doctor?”

The girl nodded eagerly and skipped over to the waiting crowd. The woman, now alert, hurried after her daughter to help Buffon gather patients.

At first, everyone suspected the mother and daughter were stooges. Only a middle-aged man who’d been standing behind them in line followed after.

Two minutes later, the man handed Reiju one hundred Beli with an incredulous look, then ran back to the queue shouting, “Look at my hand!”

The crowd could hardly remain indifferent now. Many had seen his right hand, the one with the bone poking through the skin, and now there wasn’t a trace of injury left.

“Doctor Buffon does magic—and it only costs one hundred Beli!” the child behind him declared earnestly.

At this, someone scoffed, “A hundred Beli barely buys a newspaper. We won’t fall for such a cheap trick.”

But barely had he finished when over half the people in line rushed toward Buffon.

Half an hour later, the two local doctors found themselves with no patients. Having been so busy treating the wounded, they hadn’t noticed what was happening, but upon inquiry, they learned someone was stealing their business—and charging only one hundred Beli!

Accustomed to respect in Rapeseed Port, the two did not take this lightly.

“Let’s go see who dares steal our business!” one declared, marching over to Buffon.

But after the doctor, Toldo, watched Buffon for a minute, he spoke up. “Doctor Buffon, it’s too noisy here. Why not come to my clinic? It would make it easier for everyone to queue.”

Buffon simply shook his head, offering no response.

Unwilling to give up, Toldo continued, “Then let me be your nurse, Doctor Buffon. I’ll go check everyone’s injuries first!”

“Thank you,” Reiju replied. “Please assess everyone’s wounds and bring the more serious cases forward. Assure them that Doctor Buffon will see every injured person today.”

Toldo left with a look of elation, as if he’d received the highest praise, muttering to himself, “How could I have doubted Doctor Buffon? Such skill—he only charges one hundred Beli to put people at ease. How could I…”

At that moment, the other doctor, Palyuka, grabbed him. “Well? Is he just a charlatan?”

Toldo didn’t answer. He simply balled his hand—one that had stitched wounds all his life—and punched Palyuka squarely in the face.

“You will not insult Doctor Buffon!” he declared indignantly, then nursed his sore knuckles and returned to the queue.

Rubbing his jaw, Palyuka headed over to Buffon as well. After watching for half a minute, he said nothing, but quietly joined Toldo.

An hour later, the reputation of Buffon the Magician Doctor had spread throughout Rapeseed Port. Whether sick or not, people flocked to the town center to see Buffon’s “magic.”

Standing among the crowd, Vivi was stupefied by the unbelievable scene before her.

“Is this really possible?” she wondered aloud, joining Reiju to assist Buffon.

Not until nightfall did Buffon finish treating all three hundred wounded civilians. He politely declined all invitations and turned instead to the task of dealing with the desiccated corpses.

At that moment, a cool, sharp voice called from a nearby rooftop, “What a kind-hearted pirate. If you weren’t under Moria’s protection, I’d arrest you right now!”

Buffon looked up to see a man with slicked-back white hair, wind goggles around his neck, and two cigars in his mouth, glaring at him intently from the rooftop.

“Smoker, huh? I really did run into him,” Buffon thought, preparing to speak.

But before he could say a word, the first girl he’d treated grabbed a stone and hurled it at Smoker with all her might. “Don’t you insult Doctor Buffon!”

Though the stone fell short, the gesture sparked a wave of commotion. Soon, eggs, bread, stones, high heels, and rolling pins were flying toward Smoker.

Though he was a Logia user, immune to such attacks, as a Marine commodore, being chased by villagers over a pirate was a galling situation—especially since he could not fight back.

Seething, Smoker raised his Sea-Prism Stone jitte and charged at Buffon. As a student of Zephyr, he was one of those deeply dissatisfied with the Shichibukai system. He might not be able to arrest Buffon, but he could certainly teach him a lesson.

But at that moment, motes of light began to flicker around Smoker.