NOVEL NEXT Chapter 111: 111. Sir~ Let's have some fun~
The navy did not stay ambushed under the cover of the coral reef for too long. Timing the patrol routine and then waiting like a hunter lying in wait was not a difficult task.
Extremely patient hunters easily ensnared prey that had no idea danger was about to descend upon them.
With lewd smiles, the burly pirates swaggered into the merfolk harbor, seizing the gap between the fishmen soldiers' patrols.
"It's human pirates!" The merfolk panicked, scrambling toward the pools in the back in a desperate attempt to flee.
The pirate leader at the front carried a fierce-looking handheld cannon, loaded inside with a specially made fishing net.
This weapon, tailor-made for merfolk, was simply invincible when used against these delicate and tender beauties.
The pirates noticed that the panicked merfolk did not swim away quickly as they usually did. Instead, they strangely huddled together.
"Ahaha! A mistake in the heat of the moment." The pirates burst into laughter—this certainly made their capture much easier.
"Hahaha, come on, let's have some fun!" One pirate, wearing a lecherous grin, stepped closer and closer to the merfolk curled up in a cluster.
"S-Sir, there's someone behind you..." A pink-haired mermaid cautiously pointed behind the pirate.
However, the pirate sneered arrogantly, not even bothering to turn around. "Naive! Do you think a child's trick like that can fool me?"
The moment his words fell, a dark-red hand pierced through his back and burst out from his chest.
A gurgling sound came from the pirate's throat. He slowly lowered his head, eyes wide with disbelief as he stared at the lava suddenly protruding from his chest.
Sakazuki wore a look of disgust as he casually tossed the pirate aside like a discarded rag doll. "That's exactly why I hate these brainless bastards, thinking with their dicks. They need discipline."
His actions were like a signal—the navy, hidden outside the coral reef, let out a strange battle cry and charged toward the stunned pirates.
"Big bro, come play with us!" A marine major in the lead swung his sword down fiercely, cleaving into the chest of a pirate who couldn't dodge in time. The splattering blood dyed the beautiful beach in a grotesquely enchanting shade.
Play my ass! The pirates were utterly horrified by these marines, their faces flushed with excitement, screaming bizarre slogans while charging at them.
Leaderless, the pirates collapsed instantly, scattering in all directions. They had timed their assault according to the Sea King Army's patrol schedule but had never expected the navy to intervene so suddenly.
Sakazuki let his subordinates chase down the pirates at will and instead crouched to pick up the abandoned capturing cannon left behind.
The vice admiral frowned deeply. The craftsmanship of this firearm was exceptionally refined, yet the serial number that should have been engraved on it had been deliberately erased.
Most crucially, while the rest of Fish-Man Island knew nothing about this weapon, Sakazuki was well aware of its origins.
In Impel Down, the great underwater prison, he had seen the jailers wielding these exact same prison guns.
Though Sakazuki knew that the Celestial Dragons secretly granted certain conveniences to these slaver squads, he had never imagined that they would so brazenly hand over weapons meant to suppress the most heinous criminals in the prison and use them to aid their enemies—more horrifyingly, to use them against the citizens of Fish-Man Island.
"Those bastards..." Sakazuki gritted his teeth, his expression dark and unreadable.
The major who led the charge against the pirates returned with his team, and only then did Sakazuki notice that these battle maniacs each carried several severed heads, returning triumphantly.
The major saluted him respectfully with an air of pride. "Report! All pirates have been executed."
Sakazuki, whose mood was already at rock bottom, did not bother with courtesy. "Who proposed that embarrassing battle cry earlier?"
"Uh... Sir, we thought we should fight fire with fire..."
"Run fifty laps around the coral reef. The rest of you, clean up the battlefield."
Sakazuki let out a tired sigh. Why was there not a single reliable soldier in his unit?
By the time the Sea King Army's patrol squad arrived in a hurry, the navy's small unit had already piled up the pirates' corpses into a small mountain. When the fishmen soldiers inquired further, they found that this squad had ambushed, slaughtered, and even comforted the merfolk—all in one go.
And just like that, the Sea King Army's role changed from rescue and defense to corpse retrieval and cleanup.
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"...Should I say, as expected of professionals?" The Right Minister looked at the freshly compiled report with some amazement. He couldn't help but feel optimistic—at this rate, peace in Fish-Man Island might not be far off.
Although this navy unit had only been stationed on Fish-Man Island for a few days, the reports from the Sea King Army officers in charge of different areas were almost identical.
To summarize: The navy squad in the area was deployed, the oblivious pirates believed they had the upper hand, the pirates charged in, and the pirates got annihilated.
But Sakazuki, as he looked at the Sea King Army's letters of gratitude and the attached statistics, had a rather grave expression.
He had known that after the start of the Great Pirate Era, Fish-Man Island suffered heavily from pirate attacks. But he had never realized just how dire things had been before Whitebeard had placed the island under his protection.
(*Note: It has been confirmed that Whitebeard and Neptune drank the brotherhood oath in the year 1502.)
In these past few days, the navy had focused on dealing with the most rampant pirates. Basically, any pirate brazen enough to show themselves on the streets had already lost their head.
However, there were still many pirates and slaver groups operating in secret.
Through these days of bloody slaughter, they had at least forced the most arrogant pirates into hiding.
Silently, they lurked in the shadows, waiting for the navy and Sea King Army to slip up.
Lindemann looked grim. Unable to hold back, he complained to his superior: "Vice Admiral, when we went to eliminate the pirates docked at Coral Hill, we were unexpectedly met with open insults from some of the Fish-Man civilians."
Onigumo shook his head and added, "Not only that, while I was patrolling Gyoncorde Plaza, some of my soldiers had rotten, stinking fish thrown at them from the shadows. At first, I thought it was the pirates, so I led troops to search in the direction the objects were thrown... but we found nothing."
If it wasn't the pirates... Onigumo didn't finish his sentence, but everyone understood what he meant.
Sakazuki lowered his head, fingers interlaced beneath his chin.
The deep-seated discrimination, hatred, and grievances between Fish-Man Island and humans were the real reasons why Marine Headquarters had been reluctant to intervene in the first place.
Even in the 21st century, racial discrimination still frequently led to terrible incidents. Here, under centuries of resentment and humiliation, the hatred on Fish-Man Island had only been escalating.
It was only now, after being stationed on Fish-Man Island, that the navy finally realized that their true enemy was not just the lawless pirates and infamous slaver squads.
This deeply divided island, entrenched in racial strife, was the most formidable challenge of all.
They gazed at the distant scenery of Fish-Man Island. Under the shroud of night, the city seemed like a great maw, poised to swallow them whole.
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