After Rosse and Gion finished their intimacy and came out from the cabin, they quickly received news about Tokikake.
Learning that Tokikake had left the warship an hour ago and was currently missing, Gion's brows slightly furrowed.
"Saint Rosse, I'll go kill him," She clearly understood why Tokikake would leave. The cabin's soundproofing wasn't that good, and Tokikake had been standing outside waiting, so hearing something wasn't hard.
Since she chose Rosse, and Tokikake chose to leave, it meant they were already enemies.
"Let him go. As long as he doesn't leave the Navy, spare his life. Or is it that you're not confident that you're stronger than him under me?", Since Gion had already given herself to him, Tokikake wasn't that important anymore.
Tokikake and Gion were the top students of this session's Zephyr training camp, far ahead of other students. Only the two of them were granted the rank of commodore right after graduation.
If not for the comparison with Tokikake, how could it highlight his control over Gion even more?
"I will be stronger than him. If he stands in your way, I'll personally kill him," Confidence radiated from Gion's face. She never thought she was weaker than Tokikake.
If even with Rosse backing her she couldn't surpass Tokikake, then she might as well just become Rosse's star slave.
.
.
.
[Three Days Later]
The warship drew closer to Ohara. Several other vice admirals also boarded and joined them, moving in grand formation toward Ohara.
"Master, aren't you afraid the people of Ohara will escape like this?", On the deck, Stella looked at the Navy formation on both sides, puzzled why the people of Ohara hadn't fled.
"Gion, you answer this one," Rosse smiled and shook his head, leaving the answering to Gion.
If Buster Calls were that easy to avoid, how could they still be called a taboo of the sea?
"Stella, you can't escape just by running," Gion lightly shook her head. She was part of the Navy system. Although she hadn't participated in a Buster Call before, she had studied related cases.
"First, Buster Call information is only spread among the Navy and the upper levels of the World Government. People in those places have no way to receive the news in advance."
"Second, the Buster Call fleet only gathers the day before arriving at the target location. Normally, it doesn't give the locals any time to react."
"Even if evacuating civilians is required, it must wait until the Navy has completely surrounded the area and eliminated all local armed forces."
"Lastly, the Buster Call is a synchronized operation between the World Government and the Navy. The Navy executes the destruction, while the World Government sends CP organizations ahead of time to infiltrate and assist with completing the Buster Call."
That last part, Gion had only vaguely known before. It was only in the past few days that she truly understood.
After she gave herself to Rosse, the World Government liaison tasks that Rosse was previously responsible for were all handed over to her.
These past few days, CP9 officer Spandam had reported the situation in Ohara to her daily, to the point she now knew everything about Ohara like the back of her hand.
CP (Cipher Pol) was the World Government's secret intelligence agency under Judicial Island. It included only CP1 to CP8, with each department responsible for investigating all world affairs.
In reality, the CP organization also had CP9 and CP0, both directly under the World Government as violent organizations. The former handled special events, while the latter answered directly to the Celestial Dragons.
Simply put, CP9 stood above the CP organization, and CP0 stood above CP9.
With Rosse's status, he could mobilize all members from CP1 to CP9, and even CP0 had to listen to his commands.
Currently, Gion was basically his representative within CP0, her status just slightly lower than Zephyr's.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
A heavy set of footsteps came, and the figures of Sakazuki and Zephyr appeared on the deck.
"Is something the matter?"
Rosse glanced at the two, rarely seeing them come to him together.
"Saint Rosse, we just received intel that defected Navy Vice Admiral Jaguar D. Saul has appeared in Ohara. He's suspected of leaking the Buster Call plan in advance."
Sakazuki never minced words and got straight to the point.
"Saul… I seem to have heard that name before," Rosse had a faint smile on his face, his gaze turning to Zephyr.
CP9 had informed him of this news several days ago. The Navy was much later in receiving it.
He knew Saul was quite famous, but in this Buster Call he was just a small character. What intrigued Rosse was what connection Saul had to them that caused the two to come find him.
Rosse had quite an impression of this Buster Call. After all, it was part of Robin's flashback arc.
When Robin was eight, the World Government discovered that her mother and Ohara's scholars were researching the Poneglyphs, so they launched a Buster Call to destroy the entire island.
Saul was the Navy officer who first discovered the whereabouts of Robin's mother, Olvia. He had participated multiple times in missions to capture and investigate historical ships. Dissatisfied with the Navy high command's actions, he let Olvia go and refused to carry out the Buster Call.
After that, the Navy tried to capture Saul, but he escaped, though severely injured, and drifted to Ohara.
In the end, thanks to Kuzan's mercy, both Saul and Robin survived. Only Olvia and the Ohara scholars were completely wiped out.
"The Buster Call was originally planned to be executed by Vice Admiral Saul of the Giant Tribe. But not only did he release the wanted criminal Nico Olvia, he also chose to defect. Saint Rosse, the Navy family members in your palace were implicated by Saul," Zephyr had no fondness for Saul. Buster Call events were hard for most in the Navy to accept, and Zephyr understood that.
But because Saul's defection affected a large number of other Navy personnel, leading to the destruction of their families, this result made Zephyr uncomfortable and caused his dislike of Saul.
He respected Saul's courage to refuse the Buster Call, but also detested Saul's actions that dragged others down.
People shouldn't act on impulse; they would have to pay the price for their actions in the end.
Perhaps because he saw a reflection of himself in Saul, Zephyr's feelings toward Saul were complicated.
At that time, he too had refused to kill out of mercy, which emboldened some pirates, ultimately costing his wife and child.
People like Saul… perhaps the fewer, the better.
"That fool has no idea how many people his idiotic actions will kill," Sakazuki snorted coldly.
His evaluation of Saul was simple; foolish and naive. Having him as a colleague was purely bad luck.
There was originally no need to execute a Buster Call. The real cause was Saul letting Olvia go, which led to the decision to destroy Ohara and eliminate the scholars' base of operations, and then go after them one by one.
Besides, turbulent times require harsh measures.
Saul's kind actions wouldn't make evil retreat. They would only make others think the Navy was weak, causing more pirates to flood into the sea.
Only by letting everyone know that being a pirate leads only to death, and that defying the World Government leads only to death, would the number of pirates in the world decrease.
"What do you need me to do?", Rosse neither agreed nor disagreed, and asked why the two had come.
Rosse didn't comment on Saul's kindness.
As long as it didn't drag him down, he still hoped there'd be more good people in the world.
Otherwise, he wouldn't know where to point his gun anymore.
"Fleet Admiral Kong wants to ask how you plan to deal with Saul," Sakazuki spoke bluntly.
Sakazuki understood Kong's thoughts clearly. If they killed Saul outright, it would stir the doves within the Navy.
But in Sakazuki's eyes, those dove-leaning fools might as well all die in battle against pirates. Kong, that fence-sitting Fleet Admiral, should also get lost, and be replaced as soon as possible by Sengoku, the hardline hawk.
At this time, Sengoku was the true highest hawk official, preaching the justice of ruling the world.
"What does Vice Admiral Sakazuki want to do with him?"
If Sakazuki could see through it, Rosse certainly could. He instantly saw through Kong's intentions.
'Isn't this just taking advantage of my youth, trying to get me to carry the blame?'
If they had said it outright, Rosse wouldn't have minded.
But if they were playing little tricks, then he certainly wouldn't take the blame.
[T/N: A heads-up, Robin goes DARK]
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