"Teacher, what are you planning to do next?"
The soldiers aboard the ship were cleaning up the battlefield. The only surviving prisoner, Hanevza, had been locked inside a small holding cell on the warship. Bloodstains were scrubbed from the deck, severed limbs cleared away.
Roldy and Zephyr chose a clean spot and sat cross-legged. Ain, Zephyr's student, brought over tea. Her gaze lingered on Roldy for two seconds before she quietly turned and left.
"My plans…" Zephyr exhaled. "To be honest, even I don't know."
It was the first time he had spoken so plainly about his uncertainty—especially in front of his students.
But Roldy understood what was weighing on his mind.
How had their movements been exposed?
That question might still be answerable. With a top-tier intelligence network, learning of their whereabouts wouldn't have been difficult. The grudge between Hanevza and Zephyr was enough to draw him here from the New World.
But that strange drug…
There was no way someone of Hanevza's level could have obtained it. Even a future mad scientist like Queen of the Beasts Pirates—renowned for his mastery of viruses—would need effort to custom-create something like that.
And the Marines had issued no warning.
The heavily guarded Marine Headquarters residential district had been attacked without any prior alert.
All signs pointed to a carefully orchestrated operation.
Across the seas, only one force possessed both the capability and the authority to carry out such an operation while leaving the Marines unable to resist—
The so-called "nobles" who resided atop the Red Line.
The Celestial Dragons.
"Auntie is safe. Borsalino showed up, but when we clashed, it was obvious he wasn't going all out."
Roldy's voice hardened.
"But this time we managed to get through it. What about next time? There won't always be someone there to guard them. Teacher… you're not alone."
He had wanted to say this for a long time.
To gather like-minded companions.
To pursue a shared goal.
And in his heart, Zephyr had always been one of the best possible choices.
Though age and illness had eroded some of his strength, Zephyr was still no weaker than any Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral. More importantly, he possessed unmatched experience.
And he was Roldy's teacher.
Roldy owed him far too much.
Zephyr fell silent.
Once, he had declined Roldy's invitation under the excuse of stepping back from frontline duty.
But now?
The World Government hadn't spared him simply because he had moved to the second line.
That excuse rang hollow.
Even the justice he had upheld for a lifetime had begun to waver after he realized it was no longer pure.
The people most important to him had been threatened.
Someone equally important was urging him forward.
His thoughts were a tangled mess.
"Teacher, join me! And if you're willing, they can come too! What I'm building isn't a pirate crew. Our goals should be the same."
Roldy extended the invitation again.
Some nearby soldiers glanced over.
These young Marines did not know the truth. Their belief in justice still burned brightly. If they ever learned what lay behind this incident… who knew what choices anger might drive them to make?
"Wait, Roldy. It's not time yet."
This refusal lacked conviction.
An inexplicable irritation rose in Roldy's chest.
It had already come to this.
Things had already gone this far.
Why hesitate?
Yet he knew Zephyr's temperament well. In the face of great enemies, he was the most reliable man alive. But in certain matters, he could be indecisive.
Still—
Once he made a decision, he would never turn back.
Seeing Zephyr's stance, Roldy did not press further.
He only sighed and left behind the medicine he had prepared—an expensive asthma treatment he had purchased through the underworld. Marine supplies would never include such a thing.
The drug contained multiple substances explicitly banned by the World Government.
"How are things on your end?" Zephyr asked, deliberately shifting to a lighter tone.
"Not bad. I found a reliable companion. These days I just drift across the seas. Unfortunately, very few people catch my interest."
He paused.
"A while back, I was hunting Roger. That bastard keeps escaping by the narrowest margin every time. Now he's disappeared again."
Whenever Roger was mentioned, a trace of killing intent slipped into Roldy's voice.
Zephyr frowned.
If he remembered correctly, Roger had nearly completed his voyage around the world. What he sought was an absolute taboo.
As someone who had once stood among the Marine upper ranks, Zephyr knew fragments of the truth.
The Poneglyphs would guide the way to the final island.
So how many remained for Roger?
That day would not be far off.
Zephyr could already envision it—the day the world-shaking news broke.
The entire world would be overturned.
The old era would end.
Men like him would be crushed beneath the wheels of history.
The next pillar of the Marines had already been chosen, so he did not worry too much.
In the New World, a new balance had formed.
Whitebeard.
Shiki the Golden Lion.
Those two stood as uncontested overlords.
Charlotte Linlin and Kaido—once crewmates under Rocks—were also revealing their fangs.
The New World had almost been divided into four territories.
No.
There was one more.
The young man sitting before him was more than capable of claiming one.
Even if Roldy himself had no such ambition.
Only after escorting Zephyr and his group safely back to Marine Headquarters did Roldy depart.
As they gazed upon the majestic Gates of Justice, Zephyr and his students felt as though they had stepped back from the brink of another world.
They had nearly failed to return.
"Teacher… what kind of person is your disciple?"
With Roldy gone beyond the Gates of Justice, the atmosphere aboard the ship noticeably relaxed.
Was it because they were home?
Or because the man labeled a "Top-Level Threat" had left?
As one of the top trainees of this class, Ain asked the question everyone had been holding back.
Some of the braver ones had wanted to ask earlier. But faced with Roldy's distant, almost untouchable aura, their words had died in their throats.
"Roldy?"
Zephyr smiled.
"That kid is a real man."
"A real man?" Ain blinked. "More than anyone? Even Vice Admiral Garp? Fleet Admiral Sengoku?"
"Yes."
Zephyr nodded.
Then, in his heart, he added silently—
More than me as well.
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