"Useless! You're all useless!"
A middle-aged man wearing a golden crown roared from the deck.
His voice, dripping with fury, echoed across the royal ship.
This man was none other than Kanette Lowell, the reigning king of the Nandekar Kingdom.
The boy shot dead earlier by Maude, Lyle, was his second prince—and the one he doted on the most.
It was precisely this favoritism that led Lowell to bring Lyle aboard the ship. The plan was to show Lyle the grandeur of the Holy Land, Mary Geoise.
Yet, before they even left the East Blue, Lyle was killed.
Even after throwing the negligent guards to the sea as shark bait, Lowell's rage remained insatiable.
Until the criminal who killed his beloved son was subjected to unspeakable torment, there was no way his anger could be quelled.
However, upon learning the full details, Lowell refrained from ordering the royal ship's soldiers to support the escorting Marines. Instead, he issued orders to evade the scene entirely.
The motive was simple: minimize risk while allowing the two Navy warships to handle the culprit.
Lowell undoubtedly wanted vengeance for his son, but he had no intention of squandering his own resources unnecessarily. Maximizing personal gain while exploiting everything at his disposal was the hallmark of an effective ruler.
Despite his seething rage, Lowell adhered to this principle unwaveringly.
After venting on the deck, he turned to a towering, broad-shouldered man standing nearby.
"Felton, go find out what's happening."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Felton, the captain of the royal guard, quickly made his way toward the lookout post.
Lowell's face, veins bulging from suppressed anger, betrayed no signs of calming down.
Even if those two warships dealt with the criminals, he was determined to blame the Marines for their failure to protect his son.
This isn't over! Lowell fumed internally.
Felton had barely taken a few steps when the shouts of alarmed soldiers rang out.
"Hm?"
Sensing something amiss, Felton whipped around.
In the distant sky, Maude and Lafitte were approaching at high speed.
Felton's expression shifted drastically.
"Protect His Majesty!"
Drawing his saber, Felton dashed to Lowell's side.
At his command, the armored soldiers mobilized, forming a defensive perimeter around the king.
A group of nobles, who had just emerged from the cabins, quickly retreated back inside upon sensing danger.
"Useless Marines! Can't even handle two people!"
Lowell spotted Maude and Lafitte closing in and cursed loudly.
This was not a situation where he could afford to linger on the deck.
Had he known the warships' incompetence, he would have ordered his soldiers to sink them outright. Perhaps that would have resolved the matter before it escalated.
"Move aside! Don't block my way!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
At Lowell's command, the soldiers opened a path to the cabin.
"Felton! Kill those scoundrels!"
Leaving behind that order, Lowell hastened into the safety of the cabin, feigning composure while internally panicking.
Two warships defeated? If my soldiers can't deal with these two…
On the deck, Felton's expression turned grim.
Those warships were staffed by elite Marines from headquarters—yet they had failed.
"Form ranks! Prepare for combat!"
"Yes, sir!"
The soldiers gripped their weapons tightly, bracing themselves.
Maude landed at the bow of the ship, looking down at the armored troops below.
His gaze swept over them before settling on Felton, the only one without a helmet.
Among all the soldiers, this rough-featured man was the sole one who looked remotely formidable.
Lafitte retracted his wings, landing gracefully beside Maude.
The soldiers raised their standard-issue spears, pointing them menacingly toward the intruders.
"Oh ho, quite the display of spirit," Lafitte remarked coldly.
Maude drew his blade, Chidori, glancing briefly at the soldiers pouring out from the cabins to reinforce their comrades.
Meanwhile, the royal ship's speed began to slow.
Once the soldiers had fully assembled, Felton raised his saber high and roared, "Attack!"
"Attack!"
"Attack!"
"Attack!"
The soldiers charged toward Maude and Lafitte with fervent cries.
Only upon clashing with them did they realize the chasm of power between themselves and their foes.
Maude and Lafitte plunged into the formation, unleashing a storm of blood and carnage.
Armor, no matter how solid, was useless against their strikes.
Twenty minutes later, the battle ended.
Felton lay among a heap of corpses, his face smeared with blood.
He was still alive—barely.
Maude lowered his blade, pointing it at Felton's neck.
The captain's bloodied face twisted in fury as he growled, "Daring to harm the royalty of a World Government-affiliated nation… they'll never let you go!"
"Oh."
Maude's response was a swift thrust, piercing Felton's throat.
The man's strangled groans ceased, and he lay still.
Claiming the experience points from Felton's demise, Maude sheathed his blade and headed toward the cabin.
Lafitte cast a glance at Felton's lifeless body, a smile playing on his lips, before following Maude inside.
As they entered, the lavishness of the cabin's interior hit them like a wave.
The air reeked of opulence.
Taking in the extravagant decor, Maude remarked, "Royalty sure knows how to splurge."
"There are more people here than expected," Lafitte noted, using Observation Haki to sense the presence of nearly five hundred individuals within the cabin.
Subtracting the soldiers who had died on deck, the remaining number seemed unusually high.
"Indeed," Maude agreed, his senses also picking up the clustered life signatures.
He fixed his gaze on a room not far away.
In that single room alone, there were over fifty people.
"Let's check it out."
Maude strode toward the door, pushing it open without hesitation.
The room was gilded in gold and silver, exuding an aura of excessive luxury.
On the left side, a line of golden-edged chairs and tables stood against the wall. Half-eaten delicacies and toppled wine jugs littered the surfaces.
On the right side, twelve white wooden crosses were aligned in a row.
Each cross bore a bound, naked man or woman, their bodies riddled with small, cruelly placed arrows.
Blood seeped from the wounds, pooling beneath them.
The arrows deliberately avoided vital areas, targeting the limbs and extremities instead. Some even pierced their fingers.
Nearby stood two iron-barred cages, packed with dozens of men and women huddled in fear.
"Slaves?"
Maude's brow furrowed as he coldly glanced at the base of one of the tables.
Walking up to the nearest cross, he examined a weakly breathing woman bound to it.
"Kill me… kill me…"
Her voice was faint, a mosquito's buzz, repeating the same plea over and over.
Maude's gaze swept over her bloodied body.
Sixty-two arrows.
That was how many pierced her flesh.
Silent, Maude grasped the situation. This was nothing more than sadistic entertainment for the nobles.
And this woman—she had already lost everything.
"Kill me… kill me…"
"Very well."
With a swift motion, Maude snapped her neck, granting her wish.
The woman's murmurs ceased instantly.
As the woman found release, Maude felt countless pleading gazes upon him.
The others on the crosses also longed for the same mercy.
Maude ignored them, turning to a table laden with lavish food and drink.
Beneath its cloth, someone was hiding.
Reaching the table, Maude yanked the cloth aside.
"Don't kill me!!!"
A panicked voice shrieked from beneath.
The stench of urine wafted into the air.
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