Without caring about the building anymore, Bill broke the stones and flew up the stairs, catching up with Henzo just as he was exiting the tunnel.
Grabbing him by the shirt with one hand, Bill rose high into the sky and, when they were several hundred feet above the city, shouted:
— You old fool! Were you trying to kill someone with your traps?!
- AAAAA!!! - Henzo screamed, looking from Bill to the ground, turning pale as a sheet.
"So?!" Bill shouted again, because he knew that most of the other people would have already been killed by Henzo's traps.
But his anger subsided slightly when he saw the old man standing with his mouth open and his eyes full of horror.
Bill shook his head, calmed down and said:
"Easy there, old man. I'm not going to drop you. Just keep your hands out there, I'll feel it if you start moving!"
Having said this, Bill pulled Henzo closer to him and, using the Moon Step, quickly headed towards the top of the island's main mountain.
The air was colder here, but not dangerously cold. When Bill set Henzo down, the old man swallowed deeply and said,
- Y...you really did fly from the sky!
Hearing this, Bill chuckled and said:
"It's just a Marine technique. Now, old man, why did you try to kill me?"
"I... I didn't mean to kill anyone!" Henzo stuttered. "I just... I was running for my life!"
After a few more questions, Bill discovered that only Wetton knew about Henzo's lab, and the visit in the middle of the night had come as a complete surprise to him.
Since Bill was the one who had invaded his home, he decided to drop the subject and moved on to discussing Wetton's piratical activities.
To his slight surprise, Henzo admitted that he knew Wetton was a pirate:
- Yes, then he ordered the city to be burned... My friends and I wanted to escape the island and call for help, so we tried to steal his ship.
"We were so close," Henzo rubbed his eyes and spoke in a deeper voice, "But he caught us as soon as we set sail... Of course, we tried to fight back, even now, fifty years later, I remember Rapa fighting him. But we were just kids... When another pirate came on board, I thought we were done for, but then I saw my chance and took it.
Looking straight at Bill, the old man said:
"I knocked Wetton off the ship, and we fell into the water. From there, we saw the Rainbow Mist descend, and the ship disappeared before our eyes.
Hearing this story, Bill truly felt sorry for Henzo. If the attack had occurred fifty years ago, then the old man before him would have been just a child at the time.
Bill didn't blame Henzo for collaborating with Wetton, since the guy probably had no choice after he lost everything else.
Trying to keep his tone neutral, Bill sat down on a large rock and said,
- So your friends died during the attack... And what about the city's residents, how many of them...
— They're not dead! They were caught in the Monkey Concert!
The interruption at this point did not bother Bill at all, and Henzo continued:
"Most of the citizens survived the attack... Whatever Wetton had planned for the city, he changed his plans when he saw the Rainbow Mist. Fifty years later, not many remain who remember that our 'mayor' was actually our Conqueror..."
Nodding at this, Bill asked the next question, for only someone who had lived long enough could truly understand what "fifty years" meant:
— What about the soldiers? Are they still active pirates?
Shaking his head, Henzo explained:
"These are the grandchildren of Wetton's original crew. They train for combat and fend off raiders, but other than collecting taxes, they've never seen actual combat."
Bill wasn't surprised to hear they were repelling raiders. He already knew that on islands outside the kingdoms, security was always questionable at best.
Growing up on Vallipo, he was struck by how much people trusted the World Government, so much so that the town sheriff happily signed his only son up to serve as an errand boy. But after sailing the seas, Bill began to understand.
Most of the islands did not have a large enough population to support a strong military force, and so they were always under threat of pirate raids.
"Frontier" justice could never adequately protect these remote islands from the multitude of pirate crews who could attack at any moment and then flee. Therefore, the marines were considered the only force capable of defending them.
On islands like Little East Blue, Clock Island, or Ruluk, the lack of a marine presence demonstrated the dangers that the average person faced in this world.
However, when it came to mass murder and looting, Bill wouldn't let Wetton off the hook simply because so much time had passed. So he asked how many soldiers Wetton had and whether they were prepared to fight the Marines.
Bill learned that although the soldiers numbered around 450, they lived in barracks and had families on the island. Wetton truly intended to settle down, and despite the high taxes driving people into poverty, life wasn't so unbearable that it was impossible for them to survive.
______
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