Declaration

Jerry's attitude toward his father left Rina feeling bitter, but she did not blame her son.

After all, that man had failed in his duty as a father. She supported Jess in pursuing his future, but that was no excuse for him to have never returned all these years.

Perhaps he had already forgotten the three of them, or perhaps he had died somewhere in a corner of the sea.

Now, her children were her entire world.

After learning that Jerry desperately wanted to become a Marine, Cifer suddenly came up with a good idea.

"Smoker, you should be willing to take in such a justice-driven brat as a Marine and personally look after him, right?" He patted Smoker on the shoulder suggestively.

"What kind of joke is that?"

Veins bulged on Smoker's forehead. The cigar that had just narrowly escaped death was once again driven into a desperate situation.

Smoker had no time to teach some brat how to grow stronger. What he needed to do was capture pirates and guard the entrance to the Grand Line.

"Then it's settled!"

Cifer ignored him and readily agreed on his behalf.

"Brat, after joining the Marines, stay by Colonel Smoker's side. Once you're strong enough, you'll naturally be able to do what you want."

If Jerry became Smoker's direct subordinate, his family would also receive a certain degree of protection.

Buying Manlong for 100 million Belly had ultimately been taking advantage of them. He could only compensate them in certain ways, and it was not like he had to pay for it himself anyway.

The mother and her two children looked at Smoker. Seeing that he still had a stern face but did not refute it again, they knew he had tacitly agreed.

Jerry was only a pitiful child. After learning why he wanted to become a Marine, Smoker did not mind doing Cifer this favor.

Besides, because of this guy, Loguetown had become much more peaceful lately. It would be even better without those little thugs.

"Tashigi, I have a question."

His gaze then shifted toward the bespectacled woman beside him, who was grinning foolishly at Manlong like some creep.

"Please go ahead, Mr. Cifer!"

"A logic question! I want to buy this Manlong, but I don't want to pay for it. What should I do?"

Cifer smiled, while Tashigi and the others seemed to lack enough brainpower to process it, all standing there dumbfounded.

"Then... don't buy it?"

Tashigi answered tentatively.

"Wrong! I said I wanted to buy this sword. How could you say not to buy it?"

"You tell me!"

Cifer tossed the question to Smoker, whose gloomy face suggested that he had guessed something.

"You bastard, don't tell me you—"

"Congratulations, you got it right. Your reward is having the Marine branch pay for me!"

Cifer lightly clapped his hands, cutting Smoker off.

"Yeah~ Hahahaha~ As expected of my captain!"

Watching Cifer calmly say something so shameless, Enel could not help bursting into laughter.

"How is there any logic in that?"

Tashigi muttered to herself.

"My logic is logic!"

Cifer struck a pose like Super Saiyan Vegeta.

"Absolutely not! Don't even think about it!"

Smoker flew into a rage. Even if Cifer was a pirate he acknowledged, he would never allow him to reach into Marine territory.

Naturally, Cifer had considered that. He held out one hand toward Smoker.

"Five. I will deal with five pirates on the Grand Line with Bounties exceeding 100 million, as payment for the Loguetown branch covering this expense."

Cifer did not want to spend the money on the ship, then run around looking for pirates, and after dealing with them, have to find other Marine branches to exchange the Bounties. It was troublesome as hell.

As for dealing with five criminals with Bounties over 100 million, it was no different from crushing five ants to him. Besides, he had never said when he would finish. Everything would depend on fate.

"I agree."

After hearing Cifer's proposal, Smoker was silent for a moment before giving his answer.

A mere 100 million Belly was nothing to a Marine branch, but five pirates with Bounties exceeding 100 million posed a tremendous threat to civilians.

It was merely paying the Bounties in advance. Besides, they were getting a bargain. There was no reason to be stubborn about it.

"Eh~"

Watching the two complete a 100 million Belly transaction while chatting and laughing, Jerry wore the same meme expression as Enel on Sky Island.

In reality, aside from Cifer, he had never seen what a pirate worth over 100 million looked like. He only knew that the villains with Bounties of several million or ten million who used to pass through Loguetown had already been terrifying.

"Mr. Cifer, please take it!"

Rina respectfully handed Manlong over to Cifer.

A Supreme Grade Sword!

Cifer sighed inwardly. He had not expected to possess a weapon capable of rivaling Black Blade - Yoru so quickly.

"Colonel Smoker, something's wrong!"

Several Marines hurried over to Smoker and reported what had happened at the entrance to the Marine branch.

"A group of little thugs were killed, and their families are causing trouble at the base entrance with other scum?!"

The cigar finally could not bear the burden any longer and snapped between Smoker's teeth in his fury.

Those little thugs caused trouble all day long. Many civilians in Loguetown had reported them to him, but they were neither pirates nor had they committed anything as extreme as murder or arson.

This was not originally within the Marines' jurisdiction, but for the people of the town, he had already thrown those bastards into cells for several days or even over a week on many occasions.

Yet they saw no shame in it and instead took pride in it. The town guards also had all kinds of ties to them, so Smoker could only focus his energy on dealing with pirates.

As long as they did not parade around in front of him, he did not want to bother with them, because there would be no result anyway.

Now that something had happened to them, those people actually dared to cause trouble at the Marine branch. It seemed he had been far too lenient with them!

He had just turned to take people back and deal with the matter when he suddenly remembered there was a troublemaker here.

"You bastard, don't tell me you did this?"

"Who knows? But we did crush a few annoying ants on the road."

Cifer and Enel looked completely natural, as though they really had only crushed ants. But Smoker could tell that those bastards had run into a calamity.

"Smoker! There should be quite a few news agency people here in Loguetown, right?"

Intimidating pirates alone was far from enough. There were too many people who deserved to die; he could not kill them all.

"What are you planning?"

Cifer said nothing, merely giving him an eerie smile.

Very soon, everyone except Cifer and Enel returned to the Loguetown Marine branch base. At that moment, a group of hooligans and ruffians had gathered around the entrance.

"It's him! He's the base commander!"

Someone sharp-eyed recognized Smoker, and instantly everyone's attention focused on him as the group was surrounded.

"Smoker! If you can't give us an explanation for this today, we'll surround your base entrance every day!"

Dozens of people shouted angrily, demanding that Smoker find the culprit and hand him over by the end of the day.

No matter how much Smoker despised those thugs, he would not kick them while they were down at a time like this. He could only endure their insults and wait for Cifer's answer.

"The murderer you're looking for is over there!"

Smoker pointed behind them. Cifer and Enel stood not far away, and Cifer even curled a finger at them provocatively.

"Hack those two bastards to death!"

The fury of every thug was ignited. They shouted as they charged toward Cifer and Enel, afraid the two would escape.

Nearby, quite a few news reporters nervously aimed their cameras at Cifer and Enel. They had just received word that this legendary Shichibukai was about to make a move.

"Brat, remember to cover your sister's eyes in a moment."

Jerry recalled what Cifer had said before they parted earlier and hurriedly made his sister turn around so she would not look at Cifer.

"This guy... he wouldn't, would he..."

Smoker had a guess about what that madman Cifer intended to do. He had heard that Cifer and Admiral Akainu were, in some ways, the same kind of person.

He did not stop him. For justice, countless Marines had given their lives one after another. A mere few dozen hooligans and ruffians were not worth him speaking up for.

"Kill them!"

"Divine Judgment!"

When the crowd was about to reach the two of them, Cifer merely gave the order without changing expression, and Enel answered with a bolt of lightning.

Dozens of lives vanished in the blink of an eye.

Cifer walked toward the reporters who were frantically taking pictures, frightening them into backing away again and again, afraid they would be implicated.

"I don't only kill pirates. Anyone who dares commit evil before me will die."

"There only needs to be one evil in this world, and that is me!"