At the gates of the Royal Palace, the once heavy doors had already been reduced to pieces scattered across the ground.
The surrounding guards stood there blankly, staring at Zephyr at the main entrance, seemingly unsure of what to do.
Those who had tried to stop Zephyr had all fallen unconscious.
The remaining soldiers seemed to realize that as long as they didn't move, Zephyr wouldn't do anything to them, and thus the situation turned into this.
At this moment, however, Zephyr suddenly felt a peculiar sensation. If described in a simple word, it would be: relief.
In the past, Zephyr had always followed the rules, and those very rules had bound him tightly like a prison.
"Not killing" was his principle, but when facing pirates who had tried to kill his wife and child, how could he possibly feel no hatred?
It was just that reason told him he couldn't act on it. He had to follow the rules and let the laws of the World Government judge them. That was the correct course of action.
But now, Zephyr had come to understand something. Sometimes, acting on impulse wasn't such a bad choice.
He couldn't bring himself to rampage across the seas as a pirate.
He also had no intention of joining any organization at the moment. He still held onto his original belief: to remain within the Marines and ensure that the justice of those with conviction would not be extinguished.
But even within the Marines, it wasn't as if he could do nothing.
Compared to the Marines, Nereus possessed far more overwhelming strength, and combined with the environmental advantages of Fishman Island, it had forced the World Government into reaching a compromise with him.
Zephyr knew very well where he stood. He truly couldn't compare to Nereus, but things were different when it came to affiliated nations.
An ordinary Vice Admiral would usually appear to have low standing when facing a king.
By the rules, even an Admiral would comply with certain arrangements made by a king. However, if an Admiral truly decided to act, an affiliated nation wouldn't be able to stop them.
After all, nations capable of producing such powerhouses were few.
Even the World Government and the Marines wouldn't deal with an Admiral just because of complaints from a single kingdom.
As long as that Admiral didn't commit something like massacring a city or destroying a nation in a way that became widely known, whatever the World Government would do afterward was to help cover it up.
At this moment, Zephyr had come to understand many things in this regard.
What he did today could all be blamed on Nereus. But even without acting together with Nereus, Zephyr could still do the same. At most, he'd receive a few reprimands afterward.
Just like Garp, who carried countless disciplinary actions in name, yet was still doing just fine.
If Sengoku knew what Zephyr was thinking right now, he would definitely regret sending him out. After all, an Admiral "becoming like Garp" was hardly a good thing. If anything, it would be a major headache for the Marines.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Seeing that no soldiers dared to step forward to stop him, Zephyr paid them no further attention and walked forward toward the higher levels of the royal city as if no one else existed.
Along the way, Zephyr encountered many tightly shut doors, but he didn't even bother throwing a punch. He simply used his body to smash straight through them, eventually arriving before Chap.
"Zephyr… you Marines… are you in league with that b*stard Nereus?! Is this your idea of mediation?!"
"You're the one who started this war. Your removal naturally means the end of it. Deul Kingdom will still exist, how is that not a form of mediation?"
Zephyr was capable of sophistry as well. After seeing the state of Deul Kingdom, he had already tacitly accepted that replacing its king might not be a bad thing.
"You… you bstard! I'm going to file a complaint against you with headquarters! You should be attacking that bstard Nereus from the flank and stopping his advance!"
Chap waved his arms angrily. His movements looked somewhat stiff, but it wasn't due to fear. It was simply his usual habit.
"You're a king, and he's a king. I have no reason to do that. Besides, my presence here won't change the course of the war. If you can't even stop me, how do you expect to stop him?"
"I came here ahead of time just to ask you. Do you feel any regret for everything that has happened today?
If this country hadn't so openly practiced slavery, if the person you sent hadn't laid hands on people from Ryugu Kingdom, if you hadn't provoked him in the newspapers and at the Levely…"
Zephyr indeed found this place detestable, but at this moment, he wanted an answer of his own even more.
He wanted to know. After seeing the consequences now, would anyone feel regret for what they had done?
"Regret? I will not regret the decisions I've made. It is the incompetence of your Marines and the World Government that led to today's situation! If you had been willing to stop it, how could this war have even broken out!"
The result was obvious. Chap didn't believe there was anything wrong at the root. Deep down, he still believed he was right, that it was only because of others' inaction that things had come to this point.
"Then what about your people?"
"My people? They chose me as their king and enjoyed the benefits brought by Deul Kingdom. That was their own choice!
Having chosen all this, they must also bear all of it! If you're talking about those slaves… Zephyr, haven't the Marines told you that people from non-affiliated nations don't count as humans?
Even if they were originally from Deul Kingdom, the moment I stripped them of their nationality, they ceased to be human. Whether they live or die simply doesn't—"
Boom!
This time, Zephyr's fist slammed squarely into Chap's face. His nearly twisted, deformed face was sent flying backward along with him, his entire body almost embedded into the wall behind.
"Now… that feels much better…"
As the surrounding guards stared in shock at what had just happened, dozens of figures burst in through the windows one after another, launching attacks on the nearby guards without a word.
The guards of Deul Kingdom were not slaves. They were all "proper citizens" of the nation.
They themselves owned a large number of slaves and belonged to the kingdom's noble class, so when Nereus's royal guards attacked them, they showed not the slightest hesitation.
As Nereus's royal guards, they enjoyed the highest benefits among all soldiers of the Neptune Army, but also endured the harshest training and the greatest number of missions.
Aerial combat, land combat, naval combat—they were a true tri-phibious special forces. Besides controlling the ports, they were also tasked with carrying out decapitation operations within the Royal Palace.
Chap wasn't some overwhelmingly powerful king like Harald. There was no need for Nereus to act personally. The only reason Nereus came himself was out of concern that someone within the Marines might try to stir trouble.
After all, the Marines didn't always perfectly follow the World Government's orders. There was no telling when someone might attempt an insubordination.
But now, these royal guards were confused.
They had prepared many contingency plans, but the one thing they had never planned for… was what to do if someone else stole their job.
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