One Piece: Start by Rebuilding Kuri

To survive, the villagers offered up all the women in the village, while the men hid in their homes with the elderly and children, not daring to utter a word.

This was the reality of this place.

However, Yukiko still felt a deep sense of sorrow. Being robbed due to weakness was one thing, but willingly offering up their own women out of cowardice was another.

She wanted to say something, but her chest felt tight, and no words came out.

Dan also remained silent, striding past the women and heading straight to the pile of food laid out on the ground.

The food wasn't much. It would last a long time for one or two people, but if divided among the entire village, it wouldn't go far. He casually took some and had Yukiko pack it into their bag.

The old man, thinking Dan was dissatisfied, quickly knelt down and kowtowed, but Dan ignored him.

In truth, Dan's feelings were similar to Yukiko's. Witnessing this scene, he felt both pity for their misfortune and frustration at their lack of resistance. While resisting might lead to death, living like this seemed worse than death to him.

After a while, Yukiko finally managed to recover from the suffocating feeling.

Although she had once been so poor that she had to sell herself, seeing such a scene still deeply saddened her. In fact, Dan was even more affected. Having lived in a stable country in his previous life, the sight before him felt surreal.

But he quickly detached himself from those emotions. There was no use talking to these people; the citizens of this country had become too ignorant. To them, such things had become normal, to the point that when Dan ignored the women and food, they didn't feel relieved but instead grew even more fearful.

Dan didn't plan to say much to them. He would eventually become the ruler of this country, and the more ignorant the people were, the easier it would be to control them.

"Sir, the bandits from the mountains came just a while ago, and we don't have any more food to offer," the old man at the front said, trembling.

The people of this country had no fighting spirit.

These oppressed villagers inevitably reminded Dan of Cocoyasi Village in the East Blue. Although the villagers there were also suffering under the oppression of the fish-men, they had always harbored a desire to resist.

It was only because of Nami that they endured the humiliation and didn't act rashly.

As for offering up their wives and daughters to bandits, it seemed almost commonplace to him, especially in a nation with incomprehensible customs like "night crawling".

"We're not bandits. We're here to rid Kuri of all the bandits!" Yukiko, having regained her composure, spoke to the villagers. "This man will become the daimyo of this land."

Yukiko expected these words to fill the villagers with gratitude, to see Dan as a savior. Instead, she was met with blank stares, which infuriated her.

"There's no need to waste words on them," Dan said, pulling Yukiko back. He coldly looked down at the villagers kneeling before him and issued a command without expression.

"We'll be staying here tonight. Prepare a clean room."

The old man quickly nodded. "Yes, sir... and what about them..."

Dan casually picked a house and walked in with Yukiko. Inside, there was a thin man and two small children. Seeing Dan enter, the three didn't dare say a word and hurried outside.

Soon after, the old village chief brought several women to clean the room and serve the prepared food.

"Our meager offerings are unworthy of your attention, sir. The younger girls in the village have all been taken by the bandits..." Perhaps now realizing the meaning of Yukiko's earlier words, the old man mentioned this while instructing the women to clean the room.

But he didn't dare say more, fearing the bandits would come and slaughter the entire village.

However, what he said was true.

The bandits who could afford to raid villages in such a place were likely part of a powerful group in Kuri, like the ones on Mount Atama.

Those bandits had taken over the mountain and didn't bother traveling long distances to the village whenever they wanted something. Instead, they simply abducted all the young women. They kept the young women until they grew old and unattractive, then drove them back down the mountain.

These middle-aged women returned to the village with children fathered by the bandits. The men in the village had no choice but to accept them, and they went on to have more children.

Yet even these women didn't truly belong to the villagers. When the bandits came to plunder food, they would also pick some of these women to satisfy their desires after their long journey.

After the women finished cleaning the room and left, Yukiko slumped onto the bed like a wilted flower, not even wanting to eat.

"What's wrong? Feeling upset?" Dan, seemingly unaffected, continued to sit and eat.

"Dan-sama, it's just... seeing those people having to live like this makes me feel terrible," Yukiko said. "And those bandits—they're just fugitives from other regions, yet they act like tyrants here. Kuri is already your territory, Dan-sama. Everything here should belong to you."

To Yukiko, it was natural for the villagers to offer everything to Dan, but not out of fear for their lives—it should be out of respect, like how she felt. The existence of the bandits, in her eyes, was nothing more than stealing what rightfully belonged to Dan.

Dan said, "Our purpose in coming here is to defeat the bandits. Once that's done, the security in Kuri will improve, and the food problem will gradually be resolved."

"Mm!" Yukiko nodded vigorously, then sat at the table and began eating the barely edible food in small bites.

"I originally wanted to build a harem for you in Kuri," Yukiko pouted unhappily. "I heard that Kozuki Oden once took many men's wives as his harem, and yet many people still adored him. You should have a harem too, Dan-sama, but all the young girls have been taken by the bandits!"

Dan was speechless. He hadn't expected Yukiko to have such thoughts, but he replied, "Then we'll just take them back."

"That won't do! Those women were taken by bandits. They're not worthy of being in your harem!" Yukiko said indignantly. "They should be sent to the pleasure districts. If any of them are particularly attractive, they can stay as servants."

Yukiko thought for a moment. If nothing else, in a few years, once Kuri had developed, they could follow Oden's example and take other men's wives. That would work too.