Chapter 329: Because He's My Brother
One must know, even the Marines — and even the Star Hunter Unit, which now held a status no less than the Marines — although they possessed considerable and immense power, had no way of knowing the specific situation of the God's Knights.
Therefore, up until now, Roy himself naturally did not know that the God's Knights had been disbanded by Imu.
But even without that knowledge, the current situation was enough for him to faintly guess — some kind of upheaval had highly likely occurred within the God's Knights.
He was somewhat disappointed.
He was originally thinking that if Imu dispatched a God's Knight over, he would have another opportunity to extract a large amount of Source Energy of Lineage Factor from the other party.
"We are acting on the orders of the Five Elders to take the Op-Op Fruit ability user away... and the former Seven Warlord Knight of the Sea Jinbe is also to be brought back to Mary Geoise for execution."
While Roy was muttering in his heart, the leading Divine Servant had already spoken coldly.
His words carried the unique arrogance of the Celestial Dragons.
But clearly, Roy wasn't buying it. "I've heard of your existence — however, the pirate my subordinates worked hard to catch, you want to take away just based on the words of you few?"
He sneered. "Where is your leader? Don't tell me... this group of Servants is the 'executors' for this mission?"
His words were completely impolite.
This caused the expressions of the several Divine Servants to visibly darken.
As former God's Knights, when had they ever been humiliated like this — not to mention the one humiliating them was a 'bug' from the lower realm.
"You bug..."
They almost instinctively couldn't hold back the urge to attack.
But immediately, their figures all froze.
"You are not allowed to do anything outside of the mission, otherwise I will kill you myself."
Shamrock's cold voice seemed to still echo in their ears.
This made their anger-filled brains instantly cool down.
They understood Shamrock very well — even among the God's Knights, he was an anomaly.
His anomaly lay not only in his innate formidable strength, but even more so because his personality was more like a Knight compared to the other God's Knights.
He didn't casually display his power, nor did he disdainfully act arrogant because of his bloodline.
His pride was deeply hidden in his bones, outwardly manifested as — as long as it was something he said, he would definitely do it.
If they dared to act recklessly here and clash with the Star Hunter Unit, Shamrock would truly kill them.
And now, having been downgraded from God's Knights to Divine Servants, although they were more special than normal Divine Servants due to having previously borne the Abyssal Contract — even retaining part of the characteristic of an immortal body — if their opponent was Shamrock, they knew very well they wouldn't even have much of a chance to fight back.
So, despite gnashing their teeth in anger, the Divine Servants still gritted their teeth and took out an object from their clothes. "We have proof."
Roy looked down and saw it was a seal.
A number '5' was written on the seal, along with the World Government's unique cross-star flag engraved on it, and the word 'Environment' written on it.
Roy knew that was the seal of the Five Elders, and there were only five in the world.
This one clearly belonged to the Warrior God of Environment, Saint Mars.
According to the rules, when the Marines and agencies under the World Government saw this kind of seal, it was like seeing the Five Elders themselves, and they must obey orders.
Of course, the truly important part for Roy wasn't here.
What he cared about was the reaction of the Divine Servants.
Long before coming to the Sabaody Archipelago, he had already received the World Government's order.
[The Star Hunter Unit is responsible for maintaining the stability of the sea surface, ensuring the safety of the Sabaody Archipelago, and assisting in destroying the Sunlight Tree Eve when necessary. Besides this, no unusual actions are permitted.]
Simply put, the Star Hunter Unit only played an auxiliary role in this mission.
Roy understood this was out of distrust towards him and Garp.
But at the same time, he was curious — who the World Government would dispatch to handle this matter.
After seeing the reaction of the God's Knights, he was even more curious.
"These scumbags actually managed to hold back their tempers... their leader must be quite extraordinary."
Roy pondered in his heart.
But he wasn't anxious — because this time at Fish-Man Island, his military force was also unprecedentedly sufficient.
So after a brief silence, Roy chuckled and nodded. "Since it is the order of the Five Elders, of course I will obey."
He acted quite cooperatively.
"However, I must remind everyone — we captured these two major criminals, but we are currently executing missions on the Sabaody Archipelago and have no time to escort them for you."
He shrugged.
"There's no need."
The several Divine Servants sneered.
"You only need to hand them over to us. The rest has nothing to do with you — we will personally escort them back to Mary Geoise."
Regarding the attitude of the Divine Servants, Roy actually didn't mind.
Or to be more precise — their words right now were exactly what he wanted to hear.
"That's good."
Roy responded, then stopped communicating further with them, called out to Hans and the others, and left the prison cell together.
"Those guys... what kind of attitude is that! Celestial Dragons truly are all a bunch of..."
Hans muttered, clearly very dissatisfied.
"Alright — it's not your first time knowing those guys. They are all scumbags, but at least they went through formal procedures. Our credit will be counted."
Fall beside him was very calm. "If they are responsible for the escort, we save ourselves a trip."
"I heard the Knight of the Sea Jinbe's prestige among the Fish-Man race is extraordinary — the nearby sea areas are inherently unpeaceful recently. Maybe some Fish-Men will even go hijack the ship."
Yes.
Since this group of Divine Servants actively requested to escort Law and Jinbe holding the seal of the Five Elders, then logically speaking, from the moment they took Jinbe and Law away from the Sabaody Archipelago, the Star Hunter Unit's responsibility would be considered over.
After that, even if Law and Jinbe were hijacked, the subsequent matters would have nothing to do with the Star Hunter Unit — after all, Roy had already fulfilled his duty to notify them.
For Fall, who was afraid of trouble, he didn't think this was a bad thing.
However, Hans paid no mind to this.
"Just from Sabaody to Mary Geoise — such a short voyage, who would dare to hijack the ship?"
While they muttered like this, they didn't notice — a hint of a smile seemed to appear at the corner of Roy's mouth.
"Yes... who would go hijack the ship?"
While responding like this, he looked thoughtfully into the distance.
Sabaody Archipelago, Shakky's Rip-off Bar.
"I just heard there was commotion on a nearby island. I didn't expect this kind of thing to actually happen..."
Sanji, smoking a cigarette, looked at the four Straw Hat members covered in bandages, his expression gloomy.
"However... encountering Black Judge and still being able to escape is a miracle in itself, and without sustaining any overly severe injuries."
Usopp beside him shook his head. "I read the news reports — that's the monster who killed Golden Lion."
"Thanks to you, Rayleigh!"
Franky thanked Rayleigh beside them.
"Yohohoho, Mr. Luffy is still eating — although his original injuries weren't considered severe, it's truly an amazing constitution. Is a rubber stomach really this sturdy? It's many times sturdier than my stomach... oh, although I'm a skeleton, I have no stomach."
Brook watched Luffy stuffing his face.
The latter had actually sustained injuries in the strike from Roy earlier.
But he had to say, his constitution was indeed at the monster level — while his entire body was covered in bandages, as he continuously swallowed food, his injuries were actually recovering at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Luffy, why are you eating so fast? Eat slower — no one is chasing you now!"
Seeing Luffy choke once again, Nami handed him a glass of water while frowning.
Luffy took the water, gulped it down in a few mouthfuls, and then continued eating while panting. "N-No, I still have to go ask that Fish-Man uncle."
The Straw Hat crew: "?" ×N
They looked at Luffy somewhat confusedly, clearly not understanding what he was talking about.
"Fish-Man uncle? Do you mean Jinbe?"
Rayleigh said thoughtfully. "Wasn't he already captured by Black Judge?"
Speaking of this, he actually found it quite regrettable.
He had a good relationship with Hatchan of the Fish-Man race, and thus had heard of Jinbe's reputation — from any angle, that was a great hero of the sea worth befriending.
But now the other party had been captured by Roy.
He naturally knew the fate Jinbe would face after being captured — whether as a former Seven Warlord or as a Fish-Man, the outcome wouldn't be too good.
Rayleigh originally didn't have any superfluous thoughts about this.
Perhaps normally, he wouldn't mind helping Jinbe once, treating it as making a friend.
But the current situation on the Sabaody Archipelago was clearly abnormal — under such circumstances, he had no reason to directly clash with Roy for Jinbe.
"Mm, exactly that uncle!"
Before Rayleigh could think further, Luffy bit off a piece of meat, swallowed it, and mumbled. "I just heard he met Ace, and seems to have even sunk Ace's ship... burp..."
He let out a somewhat painful burp — even for him with a rubber physique, the things he had eaten were clearly a bit too much.
But even so, he still firmly sent food into his stomach.
"When I'm full and can move, I'm going to go find him and ask clearly if he killed Ace."
"Ace?"
Hearing this name, Rayleigh frowned.
"You mean 'Fire Fist' Portgas D. Ace? His ship was sunk by Jinbe?"
"Mm — anyway, that's what Black Judge said... Uncle Rayleigh, do you know Ace?"
Luffy nodded, looking curiously at Rayleigh.
He noticed the change in Rayleigh's expression — the other party seemed to react to the name Ace as well.
"You could say that... Shakky."
Rayleigh nodded, then called out his wife's name.
Shakky quickly understood Rayleigh's meaning and began rummaging through a secret compartment below the bar counter.
Before long, she took out a stack of documents.
"Fire Fist Ace fought against the 'Lizard King' Hanafuda. In the sea area near Water 7, he encountered the newly risen Black Judge and fled in defeat. After that, his ship was severely damaged by Hanafuda, and many comrades died in that battle."
"Since then, he had been constantly attacking Hanafuda's Dinosaur Fleet, declaring that the two of them would fight to the bitter end."
"But after the Seven Warlords system was abolished, Hanafuda stayed in Wano Country and seemed to have joined the Beasts, so Fire Fist also arrived at the Sabaody Archipelago five months ago and headed to the New World."
"After reaching the New World, he appeared once in the Sumol Sea Area, and then his whereabouts became unknown."
Although Shakky was now a retired pirate, as a former great pirate staying in the Sabaody Archipelago, she still grasped quite a bit of intelligence on the sea.
Of course, intelligence on the New World was relatively not as easy to obtain — whether it was the climate or the influence of the Four Emperors, both determined this point.
"Sumol Sea Area... Newgate's territory?"
Rayleigh was thoughtful.
"Mm. Originally the fastest route to Wano Country was through the Dressrosa and Punk Hazard sea route — but at that time Dressrosa was amidst turmoil, and Punk Hazard was also sealed off by the Government, forbidding entry."
"Besides this route, the fastest route to Wano Country is from Whitebeard's territory — given that Fire Fist was relentlessly hunting down Hanafuda, it wouldn't be strange for him to go there."
"Given Whitebeard's kindness to Fish-Man Island, Jinbe — who was similarly stripped of his Seven Warlord position at the time and was returning to Fish-Man Island from the New World — could entirely have fought Fire Fist because of this."
Shakky nodded.
Rayleigh nodded silently, his eyebrows furrowing tightly.
"Luffy, what is your relationship with Ace?"
He looked at Luffy, whose face was full of determination.
He knew Luffy's identity very well, and also knew Ace's identity very well.
And because of this, he was somewhat unable to understand — why Luffy would be so obsessed with Ace's whereabouts.
"Brother."
Luffy said without hesitation. "Ace is my older brother."
"So no matter what, even if I have to risk my life — I will find that Fish-Man uncle and confirm his whereabouts!"
"Older brother?" ×N
The Straw Hat crew also spoke in unison — this was the first time they had heard that Luffy actually had a brother.
"Eh, meaning Luffy's dad has another son?"
"Idiot, his last name is 'Portgas'... they probably aren't biological brothers, right?"
"Is that the problem? Luffy's older brother is actually a pirate too, and even the famous Fire Fist — I heard he's a Supernova whose bounty exceeded 100 million a long time ago!"
While the Straw Hat crew was discussing, Rayleigh's gaze looked at Luffy's determined eyes.
"Brother?"
He glanced at the straw hat Luffy wore on his back.
Then—
"I suppose so."
He shook his head and let out a laugh.
(End of Chapter)
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