Chapter 18: Fire Calms Everything
Afraid of death? How could he possibly be afraid of it?
Sicily felt he had so many words and so much anger to vent, wanting to show this guy who looked down on him what a rear admiral in the Marines was like. He was no match for a noble major like him!
But the reality of his situation left him speechless. He didn't know how to refute those two words.
"At least... at least you have to guarantee the safety of those nobles," that was Sicily's conclusion.
As long as the lives of the nobles and wealthy businessmen were not threatened, the World Government would not put undue pressure on the Navy, and everything would be negotiable.
"Well, that depends on their own efforts," Buggy said.
Buggy thought carefully and felt that possibility was unlikely. After all, he had always considered himself a man of his word. If he said he would set something on fire, he would undoubtedly do it.
Around him, the sound of building materials exploding could be heard from time to time. The fierce flames turned his face red. The once enormous semicircular building was now just an outline, still struggling in the flames.
"What a shame!" Buggy said.
He hung up the Den Den Mushi without hesitation. Sicily, deducing certain facts from his tone and the surrounding sounds, was like a lit fuse. The noise was unbearable.
"I already told you, I advised them to save themselves," he said to Swan.
"You didn't take their money?" Swan asked him.
"What do you mean by 'their money'?" Buggy replied, feeling deeply insulted as a criminal. "Seize, seize, you know? They clearly took my money! And I was just legitimately getting it back."
How was that possible?
Swan silently opened her mouth, her worldview shaken. Taking all the money from those nobles and wealthy businessmen, locking them in a completely burned-out building in front of him, listening to their desperate screams... Something like that made the justice looming over the man in front of her even more vivid!
Swan stared fixedly at Buggy's back, her eyes almost bright like stars.
Before meeting Buggy, what was her identity? A kidnapped commodity for sale. A banished soul, able to control her own bodily functions but without an owner, a lost soul. The slave-hunting team, concerned about the integrity of the merchandise, had saved her from any harm. But the words of other slaves had already given Swan an inevitable conclusion about her fate.
Slaves without beauty were subjected to endless labor oppression by their masters, until death. And the fate of some beautiful slaves was even more brutal, so cruel that the mere thought of it made Swan shudder.
So, she had long been willing to exchange her life for dignity. Until Buggy appeared. Self-rescue. What a beautiful word! It meant that she had finally recovered herself. Finally, she could give something back.
Buggy was speechless at the strange feeling he had. It was as if he had pointed a gun at a passerby's head, threatening to kill them. And they exclaimed, "Then you should do something good." That's what the world was like. It was always so ironic.
Ironically, when one is determined to destroy the current order and justice, the advice they will most likely receive is to do good deeds.
What if it were that guy who liked to wear leather jackets? What would he do?
Buggy shook his head, lost in thought, and his gaze shifted to the other Marines, except for Jacques. Arne had already gone to the newspaper office, and Buggy needed him to spread the news to the whole island as soon as possible.
Unlike Jacques, these Marines had long known Buggy's true nature. Most were not even petty officers. They simply followed orders and did what they were told. It wasn't until they were overflowing with money and personally crushing the nobles that they finally understood. It seemed there was no turning back.
Joel was one of those Marines. After two years of household chores—washing dishes, scrubbing floors, doing laundry, cleaning decks—he finally earned the title of a full-fledged Marine. Then he began hunting dogs and cats for the nobles, helping to execute disobedient slaves or those who tried to escape. In the process, he completely buried the ridiculous sense of justice from his youth.
So, the first time he aimed a rifle at a noble, Joel felt that his hands were practically trembling. And as he desperately filled every pocket with Belly, he experienced a sense of satisfaction for the first time, a clear understanding of the aristocracy's wealth.
And now, they were burning them alive. Joel's face was full of confusion, the kind of confusion that arises when life falls apart.
"Wuwu... wuwu..." a dark-skinned veteran sobbed.
Joel recognized him. He was a soldier who had escaped from a non-member nation. His country had been conquered by pirates. His wife and daughter had been kidnapped like hogs by a slave squad. He never heard from them again. So he joined the Marines, seeking revenge, seeking salvation. Only to look back and realize he had become an accomplice. Masculine tears desperately ran from his rough hands.
The roaring fire seemed to calm a lifetime of pain.
"Well, I'm sorry to inform you that this operation was carried out completely without the orders of our superior, Rear Admiral Sicily," he said, seeing the cheerful man in front of him indifferently telling them the bad news. "In other words, the Navy will not cover our actions."
"I have two suggestions," Buggy said with nonchalance, completely indifferent to what might happen to him. Of course, what happened to the respected Major Yaro had nothing to do with him.
He pointed his finger.
"First, I suggest you take your money and start running right now, preferably getting further and further into the mangroves. I believe the money you will earn is worth ten years in the Marines."
Although he was the one who dragged these people into the water, and although he had ordered them to do it as a superior, Buggy showed no remorse. Guilt, remorse? How could the worst criminals in Gotham City be expected to feel such a thing? Even if he felt it, he would probably open his hands and embrace those strange emotions in his already wicked heart.
"Second, hide your Belly and come with me back to Area 66. Then, wait."
Wait for what? Buggy didn't bother to say. Of course, it could be that he hadn't thought it through yet.
But behind his hunched back, more than a dozen determined footsteps followed him.
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