Daz Bones looked around at the faces of the executives surrounding him. Perona remained calm, but those who knew the world to some extent, like Tesoro, Galdino, and Commodore Taki, had turned pale. Mihawk and Rayleigh's expressions were grim, though their color hadn't changed, while Crocodile was conversely smirking as he stared at the Transponder Snail connected to Kuro.
Even looking at their faces, a sense of reality didn't quite set in. He felt a strange floating sensation, similar to collapsing from a fever.
They were already struggling to calm the populace within their territory and regain control. If a great turmoil involving everyone were to occur again—a disturbance surpassing even the Pirate Alliance incident—what would happen?
He didn't know. He couldn't imagine it. But as long as he was acting as Vice Captain for the leader, Kuro, he had to think it through.
Amisu and the others are heading out on patrol, but their main objective is to keep the Celestial Dragons in check, Daz thought. I also need to prepare a fleet to maintain order within our territory... Considering the possibility of large-scale combat, I need to assign Troy and Kika to the containment effort... In that case, should I make this Taki's first job?
It was obvious that the probability of the Marine wiretapping them was extremely high. Precisely because of that, they couldn't afford to expose any disgraceful behavior here.
He should ask only the minimum necessary questions, obtain the material to decide their future course of action, and then cut the line. Just as Daz made that judgment and was considering if there was anything else needed, the door opened with a creak.
The entrance was guarded by the Guard. The fact that someone could enter calmly despite that meant they were obviously an authorized individual.
"Kuro."
The man who entered was a gangster who, despite not being a member of the Black Cat Pirates, was permitted entry into the Black Cat Mansion. Capone Bege walked in with his attendant. Unusually, he wasn't smoking his trademark cigar.
"Bege!" Kuro's voice echoed from the snail. "Perfect timing, I have a request for you too—"
"Yeah, I heard the rough outline," Bege interrupted, staring at the snail with a dark expression. "...But."
He took a step forward. "You're a little late. ...Kuro."
–
Superior Kingdom. A member nation of the World Government and one of the leading powers in the West Blue. Alongside its neighbor, the Ligalo Kingdom, it was a nation that had grown massive by currying favor with the Celestial Dragons to gain enormous profits.
It was the nation that Captain Kuro had designated as a critical defense point during the defensive lines of the Pirate Alliance incident, defending it with all his might. As a result, it had stockpiled a massive amount of food—the current lifeline of the West Blue. It had been scheming to use this to strengthen its influence over other countries and pull ahead of its virtual enemy, the neighboring Ligalo Kingdom.
—Speaking from the results, that greed was fatal.
"P-Please wait, Saint of Manmayer!" The King scrambled backward on the polished floor, hands raised in supplication. "Please, my daughters... I will surely provide replacements! I will definitely prepare them, so please, just that—"
"Shut up-eh!!"
—BANG!!
In a room built for the Celestial Dragons—constructed at a cost rivaling half a luxurious castle just to entertain the world's apex—a dressed-up man collapsed, his clothes stained with blood.
"You said you would entertain me while my mansion was being rebuilt, so I came all this way!" Manmayer Saint shouted, waving a smoking pistol. "And yet you tell me not to take the commoners or the food back? What did you invite me for?! This is why I hate the common folk-eh!"
The elderly man who had been shot—the King who had offered everything he could to the Celestial Dragons, handing over whatever they desired, even his own citizens—was already dead.
He was a man who raised taxes under logical pretexts to hide it from the people, prepared funds separate from the Heavenly Tribute, framed citizens for crimes when slaves were demanded, and sometimes even staged accidental deaths to offer them up. He was a King who was capable, yet simultaneously a hopeless fool.
Because he had done all that repeatedly and continued to meet the Celestial Dragons' expectations, the disappointment and anger toward the man who failed to meet expectations now, of all times, was deep.
It wasn't surprising. No matter how foolish a King he was, he could never comply with an order to hand over the populace and the food root and branch. The misfortune was that the World Noble who issued the order would never understand that.
"Everyone and everything is so unpleasant-eh... Oi!"
At the word of one of the most noble bloodlines in the world, the attendants quickly responded with a "Yes, sir!" If they didn't, the golden muzzle that was a symbol of the Celestial Dragons would be turned toward them, and they would end up like the man who had ruled this country.
"Take this man's daughters! Make the wife a slave along with the commoners," Manmayer Saint ordered, stepping over the King's corpse. "Take as many as you can fit on the ship-eh! My slave collection, which cost so much money to assemble, burned up before I could even stuff them! And I can't stand that my mansion and garden are charred black! It would be faster to just make the slaves work to restore it immediately, but that nasty brat, a mere pirate, had to cozy up to the Five Elders—"
"B-But!" one of the attendants stammered. "Taking the citizens of a member nation, and so many of them at that, is—"
"A King who defies a Celestial Dragon is a great sinner," Manmayer spat. "Is it not our right to take that country's people as we please?!"
He turned his bubble-encased head toward the shivering attendant.
"What exactly is the problem-eh?"