Chapter 168: I Am Not Zephyr
At the main entrance of the royal palace, the originally massive and heavy gates had been reduced to a floor full of splinters.
The surrounding guards stared blankly at Zephyr standing in the doorway, seemingly at a loss for what to do.
Those who had attempted to stop Zephyr had all already fallen unconscious.
The remaining guards seemed to realize that as long as they didn't move, Zephyr wouldn't do anything to them either, which ultimately led to this current stalemate.
However, at this moment, Zephyr suddenly felt a strange sensation. If he had to describe it with a single, simple word, it would be liberating.
In the past, Zephyr had always adhered to the rules, and these rules had bound him tightly, much like a prison cell.
"No killing" was his principle. But facing the pirates who tried to murder his wife and child, how could he not harbor hatred in his heart?
It was just that rationality told him he couldn't do it. He had to follow the rules and let the laws of the World Government judge them; that was the right thing to do.
But now, Zephyr had an epiphany: sometimes, acting on one's impulses wasn't a bad choice either.
Asking him to cause chaos on the sea under the guise of a pirate—Zephyr couldn't do that.
Asking him to join a certain organization right now—Zephyr still had no intention of doing so. At this moment, he still clung to his original belief: to remain within the Marines and ensure that the justice held by people of insight wouldn't be extinguished.
But within the Marines, it wasn't as if he couldn't do anything.
Compared to the Marines, Nereus's martial prowess was far more exaggerated. Coupled with the environmental factors of Fish-man Island, the World Government had made compromises with Nereus.
Zephyr was very clear on his own situation; he certainly couldn't compare himself to Nereus. But comparing himself to member nations was a completely different story.
Ordinary Vice Admirals usually appeared to hold a very low status when facing Kings.
According to regulations, an Admiral would also follow some of a King's arrangements. But if an Admiral truly wanted to do something, a member nation couldn't stop them either.
Countries capable of producing powerhouses of that level were rare to begin with.
Even the World Government and the Marines wouldn't discipline an Admiral just because of complaints from a single kingdom.
As long as the Admiral didn't make a massacre or the destruction of a nation public knowledge, what the World Government would do afterward was help cover it up.
It was exactly in this aspect that Zephyr had figured out a lot.
Whatever he did today, he could pin entirely on Nereus. But even if he hadn't acted alongside Nereus, Zephyr could still do this; it would just mean receiving a few reprimands afterward.
Just like Garp, who nominally had countless disciplinary actions against him, yet was still doing perfectly fine today.
If Fleet Admiral Kong knew what Zephyr was thinking right now, he would definitely regret sending him out. After all, an Admiral undergoing "Garp-ification" couldn't be considered a good thing; it would even be a massive headache for the Marines.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Seeing that no soldier dared to step forward to stop him, Zephyr ignored them and casually strode higher into the royal palace, acting as if no one else was there.
Along the way, Zephyr encountered quite a few tightly shut doors. Yet he didn't even bother to throw a punch, forcefully smashing straight through the doors with his sheer body mass before finally arriving in front of Chaplin.
"Zephyr... Are you Marines... in cahoots with that bastard Nereus?! Is this your Marine mediation?!"
"The one who provoked this war was you. Your downfall naturally means the end of the war. The Doel Kingdom will still exist; how is this not a form of mediation?"
Zephyr also knew how to use sophistry. After seeing the true state of the Doel Kingdom, he tacitly agreed in his heart that changing the King of the Doel Kingdom wouldn't be a bad thing at all.
"You... you bastard! I'm going to file a complaint against you with Headquarters! You should be launching an attack against that bastard Nereus on the flank to stop his offensive!"
Chaplin waved his arms furiously. His movements looked somewhat stiff, but this wasn't due to fear; it was just his usual habit.
"You are a King, and he is a King; I have no reason to do so. Furthermore, my being here won't affect the outcome of the war. Since you can't even stop me here, how could you possibly stop him?
"I came here ahead of time just to ask you: do you feel any regret for everything that has happened today?
"If this country hadn't so blatantly practiced slavery, if the man you sent out hadn't attacked someone from the Ryugu Kingdom, if you hadn't provoked him in the newspapers and at the Levely..."
Zephyr indeed detested this place, but right now, he wanted an answer for himself even more.
He wanted to know if, after witnessing the bitter consequences today, there was anyone who would feel remorse for their past actions.
"Regret? I, the King, will not regret the decisions I have made! It is the incompetence of your Marines and the incompetence of the World Government that led to today's situation! If you guys had been willing to stop him, how could this war have erupted?!"
The result was obvious: Chaplin didn't think there was any problem at the root. Deep down, he still believed he was entirely correct, and it was only the inaction of others that led to this current state of affairs.
"And what about your citizens?"
"Citizens? They chose me as King and enjoyed the vested interests brought by the Doel Kingdom! That was their own choice!
"Having chosen all this, they must equally bear all of it! And if you're talking about those slaves... Zephyr, didn't the Marines tell you that people from non-member nations aren't considered human?
"Even if they were originally from the Doel Kingdom, the moment I stripped them of their citizenship, they ceased to be human. Their lives and deaths matter absolute—"
BAM!
This time, Zephyr's fist connected solidly with Chaplin's face. His nearly twisted and deformed face pulled Chaplin backward as he flew, his entire body practically embedding itself into the wall behind him.
"Now that... feels much better..."
While the other guards stared dumbfounded at the scene unfolding before them, several dozen figures sequentially breached the room through the windows and, without a word of explanation, launched an assault on the nearby guards.
The guards of the Doel Kingdom weren't slaves; they were all "respectable citizens" of this country.
They personally owned a large number of slaves and belonged to the noble class of the kingdom. Therefore, Nereus's personal guards didn't hesitate in the slightest when attacking them.
As Nereus's personal guards, they received the highest treatment among all soldiers in the Neptune Army, while also undergoing the most grueling training and executing the most missions.
Air combat, land combat, sea combat—they were a true tri-phibious special forces unit in every sense of the word. Aside from securing the port, they also had orders to execute a decapitation strike in the royal palace.
This wasn't an incredibly powerful King like Harald; Chaplin didn't even have the qualifications to make Nereus act personally. Nereus had only come here himself out of concern that someone in the Marines might take the opportunity to cause trouble.
After all, the Marines wouldn't necessarily perfectly execute the World Government's orders. Who knew when they might pull a stunt of insubordination?
But now, this squad of personal guards was confused.
They had made many contingency plans, except for one: what to do if someone stole their job.
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