Chapter 106: Escape from Mary Geoise, Aid from the Shadows
At the entrances to the vast prison blocks, several squads of guards used to stand watch.
Now, after everything that had happened, only a single small team remained.
And Roy had just killed every last one of them.
He stood at the gate, stepping over bodies as he searched their uniforms for a key.
If he wanted to escape from Mary Geoise without being hunted down by the elite forces stationed here, then everything had to be thrown into chaos.
First step, start a fire.
Once the flames rose, the bulk of the garrison and CP units would immediately rush to protect the Celestial Dragons.
Second step, release the slaves.
The more moving targets there were, the easier it would be to stir up confusion. If someone tried to seal Mary Geoise to trap the culprit, then unleashing every slave inside the Holy Land would be the best way to tear that net apart.
It was good for the slaves, and good for Roy.
They would gain a chance at freedom. He would gain a swarm of distractions to help him slip away, the risk of pursuit greatly reduced.
As for keeping some slaves locked up as decoys so that more could escape later?
Roy would only tell those people one thing: get lost.
He was doing a good deed this time because it suited him. That did not mean he was about to turn into some saint who put himself behind strangers.
He would always put himself and his own people first.
Hero?
What a joke.
He was not a monster, but he was not an entirely selfless man either.
"What are you doing?" Hancock had run up behind him. She watched silently for a moment as he rifled through a corpse, then spoke.
"Sending out more slaves," Roy answered calmly.
Hancock's eyes brightened.
He really was her hero.
She immediately coughed twice when she noticed Roy glance back at her, then stepped forward and helped him search the bodies.
Roy smiled to himself. If not for the constant ding of Hancock's rising affection in his mind, he might have missed the tiny changes in her expression, the clever little shifts in that proud child's face.
"Splash."
A heavy jangle of metal sounded as Roy finally found a large ring of keys. He handed several to the female slaves with them and pointed toward the rows of cells deeper inside.
As he prepared to release a flood of slaves, Roy pulled his makeshift cloth mask tighter, wrapping it higher over his face and leaving only his eyes exposed.
He had no intention of showing his face and becoming a second Fisher Tiger in the records of the World Government.
His plan was to persuade Hancock to take these women back to Amazon Lily, where they would have a safe home and, more importantly, no reason to spread information about him.
The title of hero might sound impressive, but looking at things realistically, Roy had absolutely no interest in it.
He hated the Celestial Dragons, but he was not ready to draw the full fury of the World Government down on his head before he reached a level where they would fear him.
Otherwise he would be welcoming endless hunts from the Government and their dogs inside the Navy.
"Thank you, thank you!"
One door after another swung open. Slaves staggered out, eyes wild, voices hoarse as they offered frantic thanks to the masked boy and the three shrouded sisters beside him.
The Boa sisters themselves had not understood why he insisted they cover their faces at first, but Roy had thought it through.
If they were seen, side by side with him, in the middle of the chaos of Mary Geoise, then tomorrow's headlines would not be subtle.
[Boa Hancock, Boa Marigold, and Boa Sandersonia suspected of assassinating Celestial Dragon Saint XX. New bounties issued.]
Then, after they fled to the Calm Belt, the enraged Celestial Dragons would surely demand that the Navy storm Amazon Lily itself.
"Move," Roy said.
Once enough slaves had poured out, he passed the remaining keys to them, told them to keep opening cells, then waved for the Boa sisters and the other women to follow as he slipped away down a side passage.
A slave uprising would break out here at any moment. He needed to be gone before that happened.
The odds of escape in the chaos of Mary Geoise were not small. Some would manage to slip away. Those who did not…
For them, a miserable end awaited. In some cases, death might be kinder than life as a slave.
It was a bitter truth.
…
Not long after, different parts of Mary Geoise were already in turmoil.
In one direction, investigators were examining the corpse of a Celestial Dragon. In another, teams raced to contain an inferno that had leapt from mansion to mansion.
Then came the worst news of all.
A mass breakout in the slave cells.
Across the Holy Land, most of the garrison and Government officials were suddenly overwhelmed, running in all directions and shouting orders over one another. Mary Geoise was in chaos.
What was Mary Geoise supposed to be?
The pinnacle of worldly power. The home of the Celestial Dragons. And deeper in its flower filled heart, hidden from sight, lived the mysterious Imu.
For eight hundred years, no one had dared to cause trouble here.
Centuries of comfort had rotted the mascot gods. The Celestial Dragons, so used to trampling others, now had their legs shaking and their minds blank from sheer panic. Most of them were too busy screaming and sobbing to do anything else.
And in that mess, they tied up the hands of Mary Geoise's strongest defenders.
Roy silently thanked them.
Thank you, Celestial Dragons. I will come back for another round someday.
Outside the walls of Mary Geoise, several Navy detachments stood guard.
One of the colonels narrowed his eyes and quietly stretched his senses outward. His Observation Haki brushed over a small group of children and female slaves huddled in a shadowed corner, inching their way along a wall like frightened mice.
His lips twitched. He sighed, turned his head, and began chatting with his fellow officers about something else entirely.
"Phew…"
Roy glanced in the colonel's direction, then let out a quiet breath of relief. He tightened his grip on Hancock's hand and continued to lead them forward.
It seemed that even among the Marines stationed in Mary Geoise, there were plenty of people with a conscience who could not stomach the Celestial Dragons.
Without men like that looking the other way, how could Fisher Tiger have freed so many slaves in the original history?
Their presence now spared Roy from having to cut down Marines and bash his way out.
While he and the others slipped along the edge of the road, most of Mary Geoise's top fighters remained trapped by their wailing masters, dragged along to put out fires and restore order.
That alone erased a great deal of danger for Roy and his group.
Hancock stared nervously toward the Marines, her heart hammering.
She clung to Roy's arm, breath held, her small fingers wrapped around his hand as they stole along the corners and blind spots of the gate.
The boy who had fallen from the sky, the warmth of his palm against hers…
For some reason, it made her feel safe.
Maybe that was one of the reasons this boy had already become a hero in her heart.
They did not relax until they had completely cleared the perimeter of Mary Geoise.
Not a single Marine had tried to stop them.
Roy could not help thinking, Good grief, the entire gate squad is undercover.
After he and his group disappeared into the distance, a Navy officer finally led most of the personnel at the front gate back into the Holy Land to help fight the spreading fire.
It suddenly became much easier for the escaped slaves to storm their way out.
"Do not slow down. Just keep running. The most dangerous part is still ahead," Roy said.
He held Hancock's hand and ran toward the edge of the Red Line.
Hancock nodded over and over, her free hand gripping Sandersonia's, while Sandersonia held Marigold's.
Imu might have ignored what had happened tonight, but the terrified Celestial Dragons were furious.
Next, a wave of sycophants in Marine uniforms would rush to obey their orders and hunt down the fleeing slaves.
Marine Headquarters would almost certainly dispatch a fleet to patrol the waters around the Red Line.
[Friendship with Boa Hancock increased by 10!]
Roy glanced at the little empress beside him, then tightened his grip on her hand.
Together, they ran toward the edge of the world.
<><><><><>
[P@treon Christmas Discount: 20% OFF]
[Check Out My Patreon For +40 Advance Chapters On All My Fanfics!]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]
[Every 100 Power Stones = +1 Bonus Chapter]
[Join Our Discord Community For Updates & Events]
[https://discord.gg/MntqcdpRZ9]