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Arthur's words hit the Gorgon Sisters like a thunderclap.
'Kill the Empress and usurp the throne?'
The idea was so blasphemous, so utterly foreign to their current mindset, that they couldn't even process it.
The brightly lit bar fell into a pin-drop silence.
"Thunder Emperor," Shakky frowned, her expression darkening with displeasure. "Please don't mislead a young girl with such dangerous nonsense..."
"Hmph!"
Arthur let out a cold snort of disdain, not bothering to explain himself.
Hancock looked pitiful. Despite her overwhelming fear, she shielded Sandersonia and Marigold behind her like a mother hen protecting her chicks. Her exterior was fragile, trembling, but there was a defiance in her eyes as she looked at him.
Arthur smirked. 'Soft on the outside, steel on the inside? Refusing to submit?'
A woman who already showed the budding qualities of a King would never let another woman sit above her. Usurping the throne wasn't a suggestion—it was an inevitability for someone with her potential. It was the path a King had to walk.
At twelve, Hancock had awakened Conqueror's Haki while being tortured by slavers. But with no one to guide her for three years, that power had gone dormant.
Arthur's mastery of Conqueror's Haki was absolute—he could spot the dormant potential instantly. Rayleigh had likely seen it too but chose to stay silent.
All she needed was a trigger.
Unless they were comrades, a true King would never bow to another. Amazon Lily could only have one ruler. The current Empress was destined to fall before Hancock's ambition.
"Such a promising seedling... I can't leave her with you," Arthur mused. He turned to Rayleigh. "I'm taking the three of them."
"WHAT?" Rayleigh's expression hardened. His hand dropped to the hilt of his sword as he locked eyes with Arthur, his gaze sharp and unyielding.
The atmosphere in the small bar instantly grew heavy. A sudden, unnatural gale swirled through the room.
"You can't take them. I promised Gloriosa I'd bring them back. I won't break my word."
"Then tell her I'll send them back in due time..." Arthur smiled, his tone leaving no room for negotiation.
Making Hancock submit during this period would be child's play. He would guide her, mold her, and then send her back to Amazon Lily.
In a few years, the flag of the Thunder God Pirates would be flying over the Island of Women.
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In the end, Arthur took the sisters.
Rayleigh had considered drawing his sword, but the fire of his youth had dimmed too much. A retired legend lacking that razor-sharp edge didn't excite Arthur enough to fight. Using Shakky as leverage, Arthur forced Rayleigh's hand.
With a heavy sigh, the Dark King let them go.
Arthur, draped in his coat, strolled leisurely through the bustling Sabaody Archipelago, admiring the beautiful scenery that hadn't changed in years.
Crowds ebbed and flowed. Pirates and merchants mingled with the occasional freed slave, who looked around timidly, trying to experience the wonders they had been denied during their captivity.
Arthur walked ahead. Behind him, the three sisters followed. Their fear slowly gave way to wonder as the beauty of the archipelago captivated them.
They had been captured at twelve. They were still children at heart. For three years, they had seen only hell. Now, faced with the vibrant paradise of Sabaody, they were mesmerized.
"Hancock!"
Arthur stopped abruptly.
"Ah..." Hancock, lost in the sights, slammed right into his back. Sandersonia and Marigold crashed into her a second later.
"I... I'm sorry! Please forgive me!"
The three girls immediately apologized, bowing their heads in abject terror. Their eyes were red, on the verge of tears.
Arthur looked down at them, a headache forming. The trauma inflicted by the Celestial Dragons ran deep.
Even though they were free, the shackles on their minds remained. He needed to break them.
"Don't be afraid. Lift your heads up!"
The sisters obeyed, timidly raising their heads while shrinking their necks like frightened quails. Hancock possessed a devastating beauty, even at this age, but she had no idea how to wield it.
This Hancock was miles away from the arrogant, narcissistic Empress of the future. She didn't know how to use her assets. She didn't have the ruthless mindset of a pirate. All she knew was weakness and obedience.
Perhaps she would only overcome her fear if her sisters were threatened?
"This version of Hancock... she has absolutely no value," Arthur thought, shaking his head. "I need to jumpstart her evolution..."
He turned his gaze toward the Lawless Zone, a cruel smile spreading across his face.
"The war ended yesterday, and they're already out here strutting around?"
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"Kneel, you filthy mongrels!!"
The vulgar command came from a Celestial Dragon wearing the signature bubble helmet and opulent robes. He screeched in a cracked, grating voice, cracking his whip at the crowd with a look of utter disgust.
"Crawl faster, you useless trash!!"
The bustling, noisy Lawless Zone fell deathly silent.
A male and a female Celestial Dragon, both grotesquely obese, sat atop a massive, muscular slave. Surrounded by a retinue of sycophantic guards, they paraded through the streets as if touring their personal garden, looking down on everyone with supreme arrogance.
Pirates, merchants, civilians—no one dared to meet their gaze. Everyone dropped to their knees, pressing their foreheads to the dirt, trembling. There wasn't a shred of backbone to be found. Their faces showed no resentment, only a numb acceptance of this twisted reality.
A sea of kneeling people stretched down the road. The only ones left standing were Arthur and the three sisters.
"Insolence! Who are you?!"
The male Celestial Dragon, spotting the four standing figures, flew into a rage. He pulled a gold-plated pistol from his robes, aiming it at them.
The Gorgon Sisters froze in terror. Their bodies shook uncontrollably. The shadow the Celestial Dragons had cast over their lives was enormous.
Self-proclaimed descendants of the Creators. Treating humans like cattle. Killing on a whim. Parasites like this deserved to be exterminated.
"Everyone alive has a value," Arthur sneered, reaching out his hand towards them. "And your value is... to come over here and die!!"
An immense suction force erupted from his palm.
It grabbed the metal collars connecting the bubble helmets to the Celestial Dragons' necks. The two fat nobles were yanked off their human mount, flying through the air before crashing and rolling to Arthur's feet like balls of lard.
"Scum! How dare you?!"
"Unhand the Great..."
The guards snapped out of their shock, shouting threats to cover their own fear. But before they could finish—
"ZZZTTTTT!!"
Arthur didn't even look at them. A blast of lightning turned the sycophants into charred statues instantly.
"AAAAAHHHHHHH!"
The kneeling crowd, peeking up to see the carnage, erupted into screams. Panic seized the street. People scrambled over each other to flee the scene.
The Lawless Zone descended into chaos. A black tide of humanity ran for their lives.
Harming a Celestial Dragon meant an Admiral. It meant a Buster Call. It meant death.
Arthur ignored the fleeing ants. He looked down at the three sisters, who had collapsed to the ground in fear.
He casually used his power to suck a longsword from a nearby shop, tossing it onto the ground in front of them with a clang.
"HANCOCK. KILL HIM. AND BE REBORN!"
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