Late at night, dark clouds covered the moon.
At the top of the G-17 watchtower, the cold wind blew hard.
Aiden sat in a chair that had been brought up for him, wearing his coat. He played with a gold coin, flipping it quickly between his fingers.
Gion and Smoker stood in the shadows behind him, one on each side. Their expressions were cold.
In front of them, fifteen officers stood in a messy line. Some were still buttoning their shirts, and some looked half-asleep.
But now, with the freezing wind hitting them, everyone was wide awake. They pulled their necks into their collars and did not dare look up at the young captain.
"Eighteen main officers in total."
Aiden looked at a list in his hand and spoke calmly. His voice carried a little in the wind.
"Fifteen arrived. Where are the other three?"
Silence.
The officers below looked at each other, their eyes moving around. Some wanted to say they were "sick," and others said they were "patrolling the defense area," but their voices were so quiet they did not even believe themselves.
"Patrolling the defense area? In the middle of the night?"
Aiden gave a light laugh, ignoring the poor lies. His gaze passed over the crowd and stopped on the trembling Colonel Moore standing at the very front.
"Moore."
"Here! I'm here!" Moore jumped, nearly falling over.
"You tell me."
Aiden pointed to the empty spots.
"Those are two Majors from the logistics department and a Lieutenant in charge of port scheduling. It's the middle of the night. If they aren't sleeping in the dorms, where did they go?"
Moore's face turned white at once. He looked at his colleagues around him, who were giving him warning looks.
Then he looked at Aiden's eyes, which were frighteningly bright in the dark night. Fear beat everything else.
He was an outsider who had been pushed out of the core circle anyway. He did not get any share of the loot, but he got all the blame.
Facing Aiden's pressure, his mental defense broke at once.
Thud!
Moore knelt on the ground, not daring to look up. His voice shook as he stuttered, "Doing... doing business... I think they went to do business..."
"Doing business?" Aiden raised an eyebrow.
"What kind of business?"
"The specifics... I'm not very sure about the specifics..." Moore buried his head even lower, his voice as thin as a thread.
"But every time it's a night with no moon, they go out for a while at night and come back before dawn."
"So it's not the first time."
Aiden stretched out his words meaningfully. He turned his gaze toward the pitch-black sea.
"As the captain, why did no one tell me about this in advance?"
At the same time, about ten miles outside the port.
A ship that looked like a merchant vessel had all its lights turned off. It floated quietly on the sea.
Under the deck, the cabin with no windows was brightly lit. The smell of wine was everywhere.
The three "missing" Marine officers had unbuttoned their uniforms and looked messy. They held glasses of red wine, their faces red as they sat on leather sofas.
Opposite them sat a pirate captain with a rough face and gold teeth.
The table was covered with open boxes. Half were filled with stacks of Berries, and the other half were supplies sold from the Marine base.
There were medicines, swords, and even several Marine sniper rifles.
"Come, come, officers. Try this."
The pirate captain busily poured wine for the officers, his face full of a greedy smile. "This is fine wine brought from the West Blue."
"Mmm, not bad."
The Major in charge of logistics took a sip and closed his eyes happily. He looked nothing like the miserable person crying about poverty in front of Aiden earlier that day.
He patted the money box beside him and laughed.
"Doing business with you is much better. Unlike that new kid at the base. He's barely grown up, but he acts like he's a big deal."
"Oh? A new kid?"
The pirate captain leaned in curiously. "What? Nelson's replacement? Didn't the higher-ups send someone who knows how things work?"
"Knows a damn thing!"
Another Lieutenant spat in disdain and put his feet on the table.
"He's just a brat fresh out of the Headquarters training camp. I don't know what kind of luck he had to get this position.
He's young, but he talks big. As soon as he arrived, he wanted to fix military discipline."
"Exactly."
The Major swirled his wine glass with the look of a clever old man.
"Don't mind him. Let him struggle. The water at G-17 is deep.
Without us, he wouldn't even know which way a toilet door opens. After two months, once he hits a wall and suffers a bit, he'll be begging us to set up this connection again."
"Hahahaha! That's true, that's true!"
The pirate captain laughed along, a flash of contempt in his eyes.
"Young people always think Justice can buy dinner. Once he goes hungry for a couple of days, he'll understand.
Even if God himself came down, he wouldn't be as close as Berries!"
"Well said! To Berries!"
The group clinked their glasses together. The atmosphere was so friendly they looked like family.
Where were the Marines and pirates? They looked more like business partners who had worked together for years.
The trade was finished quickly. Boxes of treasure were moved onto the small Marine boat, while the Marine supplies were moved onto the pirate ship.
"We're leaving."
The Major let out a wine burp and patted the pirate captain's shoulder.
"Next month, same time. Remember, bring more of that tobacco next time. Your stuff is strong."
"Of course, of course! Have a safe trip, officers!"
The pirate captain stood by the railing, waving goodbye with a big smile.
The officers jumped onto the small boat and started the engine, ready to return with their loot. They were already discussing how to split the money and whether they should use a small part of it to "feed" the new captain and pull him into their circle.
However, they did not know something.
On the watchtower miles away, a pair of eyes had already "seen" everything.
On the high platform.
Aiden stood by the railing, the sea breeze blowing his coat.
By combining the Rumble-Rumble Fruit with Observation Haki, Aiden could clearly sense everything in the area. Every word of the conversation on the distant sea reached him clearly.
There was no emotion in his eyes, only coldness.
They planned it quite well.
He slowly raised his right hand, extending his index finger. He pointed far away toward that empty, dark area of the sea.
Gion stood behind him. Looking at his back, she suddenly felt a chill in her heart.
"Should we send a warship to arrest them?" Gion asked in a low voice.
"Arrest?"
Aiden shook his head. A cruel, cold smile curled on his lips.
"No. For trash that can't be recycled, destruction is the most efficient way to handle it."
The moment he finished speaking.
A terrifying bolt of lightning, more than dozens of meters wide, instantly tore through the pitch-black night sky.
BOOM!!!!!
It was like heavenly punishment. The stinging blue-white beam of light carried enough force to destroy everything.
It dropped from the sky, accurately hitting that empty, dark part of the sea and completely covering that pirate ship and the small boat that had just left.
Time seemed to stop at that moment.
The flattering smile on the pirate captain's face and the proud expressions of the officers were all frozen in that blinding white light.
Then, everything was wiped out.
The terrifying high temperature instantly vaporized tons of seawater. The ship and the people on it did not even have time to scream.
Only then did the sound of the explosion and the shockwave arrive.
A huge mushroom cloud rose from the horizon, lighting up the entire area of the sea as if it were daytime. The violent air currents kicked up massive waves that spread wildly in all directions.
On the high platform.
Only when that blinding light appeared and that deafening roar arrived did the officers nearby suddenly snap out of it.
"That! That was!"
They rushed to the railing and grabbed the binoculars from the observation point.
Then, they saw a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives. In the distant sea, where the trade had just happened, there was now only a huge, boiling whirlpool.
It was gone.
Everything was gone.
The colleagues who were alive just a moment ago, the people who were dreaming of getting rich, in the blink of an eye, they had been completely erased from the world by that lightning from the sky.
Not even ashes remained.
Gulp.
Someone swallowed. In the silence, the sound was very clear.
Everyone turned their necks stiffly. With eyes that looked as if they were seeing a monster, they looked at the figure standing at the very front.
Aiden still kept his hand pointed toward the distance. A lingering spark of electricity still jumped at his fingertip, making a "bzzzt" sound in the dark night.
He slowly pulled his hand back. He did not even look back at the huge blast behind him.
He turned around.
Facing the group of officers who were already pale with fear, Aiden's face looked especially cold under the light from the explosion. He slowly showed an expression of great regret and surprise.
"Oh my, how unfortunate."
Aiden's voice was so calm it made their skin crawl. It echoed slowly on the silent platform.
"It seems the weather at sea is truly unpredictable. That merchant ship must have done too many bad things.
In the middle of the night, it actually got struck by lightning."
He walked over to an officer who was dripping with cold sweat. He reached out and helped him straighten his messy collar.
The officer was frozen with fear, his teeth chattering. He couldn't even move.
Aiden patted his shoulder and asked with a smile, "Tell me... people shouldn't do bad things, right?
Otherwise, even heaven will punish them.
"Yes! Yes!"
The officer's legs went weak, and he collapsed onto the floor.
He nodded frantically, his eyes full of tears and snot from extreme terror. His voice changed because of fear.
"It was punishment from heaven! It was punishment from heaven!! The captain is right!!"
The others also understood what was happening.
They all nodded frantically.
"Yes, yes! It was a natural disaster! So unfortunate!"
"This is karma!"
They were completely terrified.
This was not a commander who talked things out, and he was not a young man they could fool.
He killed without hesitation.
He did not need evidence, and he did not need a trial.
If he wanted it, lightning would fall from the sky.
The moment that pillar of lightning fell, all their hopes of getting away with anything disappeared.
Looking at the group of officers who were completely broken by fear, the smile in Aiden's eyes disappeared at once.
He went back to his cold expression.
He waved his hand as if he were brushing them aside.
"Alright. Since it was a natural disaster, let's not worry about it."
"Everyone is dismissed. Go back and get a good night's sleep.
Remember the lesson of tonight."
Aiden looked up at the first light appearing in the east.
"Dawn is coming."
"In one hour, the entire staff will assemble at the plaza."