"admiral, the latest newspaper is here meow."
(=ΦωΦ=)つ
On this day, as Sherwin was taking turns giving his Felynes massages on the deck as usual, Huamei Meow jumped down from the mast holding the newly arrived newspaper.
Sherwin quickly took the paper and began flipping through it...
Ever since talking to Morgans on the phone two days ago, he had a nagging sense of foreboding.
That birdman hadn't asked about the details of the battle he had just exchanged a few casual pleasantries and then hung up after dropping the line, "I'm giving you a big surprise."
Setting the official newspapers and wanted posters aside for a moment, Sherwin rapidly opened "his own" World Economic Journal.
Unsurprisingly, on the entire front page of the World Economic Journal, photos of Sherwin and Klee Meow, along with the image of the gold wall on Gran Tesoro melted by Klee Meow, occupied most of the space.
The text took up less than a quarter of the page, and a large portion of that was just a single line of bolded, oversized front-page headline—
[NOT A PIRATE! THE FIFTH EMPEROR OF THE SEA IS BORN!]
Sherwin: "..."
I've become Nika?!
Rolling his eyes speechlessly, Sherwin rubbed his brow with a slight headache.
He never thought becoming an "Emperor of the Sea" was a good thing.
One only had to look at the Four Emperors in the manga being constantly harassed by rising pirates to know that those ambitious pirates wouldn't be deterred by the title of Emperor of the Sea instead, they would be even more eager to come looking for trouble.
The only saving grace was that Morgans, that birdman, had at least specifically pointed out the fact that he was "not a pirate"...
Although Sherwin felt that doing this wouldn't be of much use anyway.
However, becoming the "Fifth Emperor" or something else was actually within Sherwin expectations.
After all, he had already been a Warlord, and after the Warlord title was abolished, some kind of title would likely fall upon his head anyway.
When he thought carefully about his track record along the way, it didn't seem that strange to become the Fifth Emperor? Sherwin smacked his lips and then casually looked at the content of this news.
Overall, the content of this report did not differ much from the truth, it only concealed the existence of the Holy Knights. Additionally, it was somewhat biased toward Tesoro, making him look like an innocent bystander who was caught in the crossfire...
Well, Tesoro probably bribed Morgans.
The witty Hunter had already seen through everything.
After putting down the World Economic Journal, Sherwin picked up the official newspaper. He was curious about how the World Government would report it.
As it turned out...
The front-page headline of the official newspaper had nothing to do with Sherwin at all.
[Impel Down invaded by unknown persons, some criminals mysteriously missing]
What? Impel Down was raided?
That not right. At this point in time, whether it was Luffy or Blackbeard, neither of them should have stepped onto the stage yet...
Sherwin didn't bother looking for the report about himself and quickly scanned through this news item.
After reading the whole thing, he finally understood. Impel Down wasn't like Luffy in the manga, fighting his way out.
Instead, a portion of the criminals suddenly vanished without the guards knowing anything about it—the kind where they were gone without a trace, dead or alive.
This situation is... Ivankov?
In the manga, that Queen of the Newkamas had specially carved out a secret base within Impel Down to take in many prisoners, with the price being their gender changed by his Horm-Horm Fruit powers.
Only, he been in there for so long is it only starting now?
Furthermore, even if he wanted to establish a secret base, he shouldn't be making such a huge scene.
Unfortunately, the details in the newspaper weren't very specific, and Sherwin couldn't deduce the truth.
Following that report, it was finally time for Sherwin news.
Sure enough, in the official report, it was a completely different story—
The "evil" Hunter Sherwin took an interest in the wealth of "Guild Tesoro" and attempted to loot the Gran Tesoro, only to be stopped by Marines who "happened" to be on vacation there.
Additionally, in this battle, the conscripted Aramaki performed excellently and would be promoted to Admiral under the codename "Ryokugyu."
The only thing this report and the World Economic Journal report had in common was likely that both omitted the existence of the Holy Knights.
"What confusing behavior meow... compared to the news written by Mr. Morgans, would anyone actually believe this report meow?"
(=ω=)
Hiko Seijuro, who was being held in Sherwin arms and had finished reading the whole article with him, looked up at Sherwin in confusion.
"Of course people will believe it."
The one answering him was Robin, who was holding another copy of the official newspaper.
"Even though Sherwin has always had a good reputation, the World Government has maintained its rule for so many years, and there are still people in many places who believe in them.
Besides, the World Economic Times didn't have a very good reputation in the past they often distorted reports just to create big news."
"Furthermore, ever since the Mary Geoise incident, the official newspapers have been tirelessly working to ruin Sherwin image.
If a lie is told often enough, some people will naturally start to believe it. Thus, the idea of the Hunter coveting Gild Tesoro wealth seems perfectly logical to them."
Sherwin was aware of this as well, but he hadn't taken it to heart. Morgans had specifically asked if he wanted help to refute the claims, but Sherwin had turned him down.
Having seen plenty of this kind of mudslinging back on Earth, he knew very well that a rumor is easily started but exhausting to debunk.
Against this kind of white noise tactic that requires proving a negative, arguing back is pointless—especially in a world without the internet where information transmission is underdeveloped.
Even if he wanted to play the game of using "water army" trolls to smear them back, it wouldn't work.
It was one thing for Morgans to ignore the World Government orders, but asking that bird-man to actively smear the World Government and the Marines was something he simply didn't have the guts to do.
Therefore, Sherwin could only ignore the situation, and he had no interest in dealing with it anyway.
"There one more thing," Sherwin added, scratching Seijuro Meow under the chin.
"Neither report mentions the Celestial Dragons, and the Marines still have a relatively good reputation among the common people."
After all, a large portion of the Marines truly were "protecting civilians," even if that was limited to those in allied nations.
"So, without the Celestial Dragons drawing all the hatred, there will definitely be more people who believe the official reports compared to the previous Mary Geoise incident."
"I see, meow..."
Seijuro Meow nodded solemnly, then squinted his eyes comfortably under Sherwin stroking, letting out a soft purring sound.
(=ω=)
After finishing the report full of lies in the official newspaper, Sherwin pulled out the latest stack of wanted posters...
The one on top was, unsurprisingly, his own photo.
"Hunter" Sherwin, bounty: 3.5 billion Berries, Dead or Alive.
After killing two members of the God Knights, the bounty only increased by 500 million Berries. It seemed those "elite-tier" Celestial Dragons weren't worth that much after all.
Sherwin sneered and flipped to the second poster. Again, without any surprise, Klee Meow cute little face appeared. However, compared to Sherwin stingy 500-million increase, the little Ragdoll bounty had jumped significantly.
It went straight from 770 million to 2 billion Berries, matching Shermie Meow.
Also seeing a massive surge in value was the main force of this battle, Purah Meow. The bounty for the "Seven-Colored Puppeteer" rose from 15 million to 300 million Berries, making her the fourth highest-valued cat in the Investigation Team—even higher than combat-type cats like Seijuro Meow and Link Meow.
And just like before, the labels for Klee Meow and Purah Meow both specified "Only Alive."
Finally, Dodo Advance finally got her wish and made it onto a wanted poster. Because her appearance was very similar to Klee Meow, even though the Marines knew nothing about her, they still gave her a "high price" of 50 million Berries.
"That great, meow! Everyone come look, meow! I'm on a wanted poster too, meow!"
(=`▽´=)
Dodo Advance reacted exactly like Klee Meow had before, excitedly holding up his own bounty poster and running off to show it to everyone else.
As for the remaining posters, aside from two newly rising pirates, they were all pirates and wanted criminals who had "disappeared" from Impel Down. Naturally, Sherwin saw Emporio Ivankov heavily made-up face among them...
Well, after the transition from 2D to 3D, Ivankov look was even more of an eyesore.
"Wait a minute! What about Mr. Kamijou? Why isn't there a bounty poster for Mr. Kamijou, meow?!"
(=ΦДΦ=)
A certain unlucky little cow cat shouted indignantly.
"Are you sure you want to see your own bounty?" Sherwin rubbed the cat head, saying pityingly,
"With your luck, if you ended up on a bounty poster, you'd probably somehow become a target for everyone for no reason at all."
"..." Touma Meow: "Such misfortune, meow!"