Outside the door, Shirakawa could already hear the continuous screams coming from inside the room. The shrieks were ghastly and piercing, each one more agonized than the last.
"Saral really isn't holding back," Jorah remarked as the screams dragged on without pause.
"He's venting. He doesn't want Lile to die so easily." Shirakawa understood exactly what Saral was feeling.
Not because he had gone through the same experience, but because he had grown much more attuned to the human heart.
As for Lile's bodyguards, they desperately wanted to rush in and protect their master, but none of them dared to move. Over twenty bodies were already piled up right in front of them. The people on the other side clearly treated human life as worthless.
The mansion's alarm had long since gone off. The alarm was linked directly to the city's military police and the local naval base. If Shirakawa's guess was correct, the marines were already on their way.
But no one rushed Saral. The forces of a single naval base weren't much of a threat to them anyway.
Soon enough, the sound of orderly marching reached their ears from outside. Without any surprises, those footsteps belonged to the marines. In this world, only the navy had soldiers so rigorously drilled.
At almost the same moment, the screams inside the room stopped. The door opened, and Saral stepped out, his expression perfectly calm.
"Is it over?"
"Yes. It's all over now." Saral released a deep, long sigh. He felt as if a tremendous weight had been lifted from his shoulders. The burden he had carried in his heart was completely gone.
From this instant onward, a new life was waiting for him.
"Then let's break through." A wicked grin tugged at the corner of Shirakawa's mouth.
By now, the marines had flooded inside. The commanding officer spotted Shirakawa standing at the front, and his face briefly froze in shock before snapping back to its usual sternness.
No marine assigned to protect the nobility here was ordinary. Even though Shirakawa's appearance had startled him, he never for a second forgot that he was a marine. No matter how powerful the enemy might be, he absolutely could not back down.
"What have you done with Count Lile?" the lead marine demanded, his brows knitting together in a tight frown.
"We came here for Count Lile. What do you think we've done?"
Shirakawa's reply was a question in return. Did they really think they had made this trip for nothing?
"Damn you. All marines, prepare yourselves! Do not let any of these scum leave this place!"
The marine commander drew his blade and barked orders at the rank-and-file soldiers. But Lile's bodyguards had already fled. With Count Lile dead, there was no reason for them to stay.
"I'll leave them to you. No need for me to step in, right?" Shirakawa said to his three companions.
"Of course, Captain. If this much required you to act, what value would the rest of us even have?"
Jorah drew his twin blades, his face lighting up with eager excitement as he locked eyes on the marine commander. That was his target. Judging by the rank insignia, the man was a rear admiral, his strength likely a match for Jorah's own.
The battle erupted. Jorah immediately clashed with the marine rear admiral, while Euristine calmly shot down one soldier after another. Not a single marine could get anywhere near him.
Saral moved through the battlefield like an assassin. Everywhere his figure passed, no marine survived. His ghostlike movements demonstrated the full power of his Speed Fruit.
Shirakawa, meanwhile, simply strolled toward the manor's exit. Even when he walked straight through the marine ranks, he moved as if no one was there. Not a single enemy could get within two meters of him.
He was utterly satisfied with his crew's performance. This was exactly how a pirate crew should be. The captain didn't need to handle every little matter personally.
Although the three of them weren't exactly top-tier powerhouses in the New World yet, each possessed tremendous potential. In their respective fields, every one of them was a rare genius.
They would inevitably grow into Admiral-level fighters. That day wouldn't take too long, maybe two years, maybe three.
That was precisely why Shirakawa had no intention of entering the New World within those three years.
Aside from the marine rear admiral, no one else could withstand even a single strike from the remaining two. Watching his subordinates fall one after another, the rear admiral's anger erupted completely.
He had always treated his soldiers like family. But now his family was collapsing one by one beneath the blades of demons. The grief and fury tearing through his heart were unbearable.
"Rear Admiral, losing focus in battle is a bad habit."
Jorah laughed slyly and seized the opening, immediately slashing across the officer's body.
Already boiling with rage and now stung by fresh pain, the rear admiral grew even more ferocious. His attacks accelerated until Jorah actually began struggling to hold him off.
Noticing Jorah's predicament, Saral flashed into the fray without a word, turning the duel into a two-on-one fight and shouldering much of the burden.
"So you're the one who killed Count Lile?" the rear admiral growled at the newly arrived Saral.
"That's right."
"Why did you kill him?"
The rear admiral's fury toward Saral was absolute. If not for him, they never would have been called here, and his men would not have suffered so many losses.
"He was my father. Think of it as a family dispute."
"What?" The rear admiral froze in shock. Never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined that the one who murdered Count Lile was the count's own son.
"Rear Admiral, didn't I already tell you? Losing focus in battle is a bad habit."
"Not good!" The marine officer realized too late. Both Jorah and Saral were lightning-quick fighters. Spotting a flaw meant landing a heavy blow.
They both seized the opening. This time, their attacks should have bitten straight into flesh and blood. But to their mutual surprise, their blades slammed against his body as though striking solid iron.
"What is this?" The two immediately pulled back after the failed strikes.
"Iron Body." The rear admiral finally exhaled and spat out the two words through clenched teeth.
"Rokushiki, huh? Right, how could a rear admiral not know the Six Powers?
Saral, go help Euristine. Leave this to me." Jorah's voice brimmed with excitement. He couldn't wait to go all out.
"Fine."
Saral didn't waste time worrying. They still had a captain who hadn't lifted a finger yet.
"You know I can use Rokushiki, and you still dare to face me alone? Brave kid."
"I just wanted to see how strong the Navy's Six Powers really are. Let's find out whose is harder, your Iron Body, or my blades."
Right before the rear admiral's eyes, both of Jorah's swords became coated in a layer of Armament Haki.
"Haki?"
/-\
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