Buster Call in Progress

After Ross and Gion finished their intimate moment and emerged from the cabin, they quickly received a message from Kake.

Learning that Kake had left the warship an hour ago and was now missing, Gion's willow-like brows furrowed slightly.

"Saint Ross, I'll go kill him."

She knew exactly why Kake had left. The cabin's soundproofing was mediocre, and since Kake had been waiting outside, overhearing something wasn't difficult. Since she had chosen Ross and Kake had chosen to leave, it was clear they were now enemies.

"Let him go. As long as he doesn't leave the Navy, spare his life. Or do you lack confidence that you can surpass him under my command?"

Since Gion had given herself to him, Kake was no longer that important. Kake and Gion were the top students in this generation of Zephyr's Training Camp, far ahead of the others—the only two to be granted the rank of Rear Admiral right after graduation. Without Kake as a comparison, how else could Ross highlight how well he treated Gion?

"I will be stronger than him. If he stands in your way, I'll kill him with my own hands."

Gion's face radiated confidence. She had never been weaker than Kake to begin with. With Ross backing her, if she still couldn't far surpass Kake, she might as well become his slave.

Three days later.

The warship drew closer to Ohara. The ships of the other Vice Admirals gradually converged with them, sailing in a grand formation toward the island.

"Master, aren't you afraid the people of Ohara will flee?"

On the deck, Stella gazed at the naval array on both sides, puzzled why the Oharans weren't running.

"Gion, you answer this question."

Ross shook his head with a smile, passing the task to Gion. If the Navy's Buster Call were so easy to evade, it wouldn't be called a taboo on the seas.

"Stella, running won't work."

Gion shook her head gently. She was part of the Navy system and, though she'd never participated in a Buster Call, she had studied relevant cases.

"First, information about the Buster Call only spreads among the Navy and high-ranking World Government officials. The people there have no way to receive news in advance."

"Second, the Buster Call fleet only assembles the day before reaching its destination, normally giving the locals no time to react."

"Even if they want to evacuate civilians, they have to wait until the Navy fully surrounds them and eliminates all local armed forces."

"Finally, the Buster Call is a synchronized operation between the World Government and the Navy. The Navy carries out the destruction, while the World Government dispatches the CP Organization in advance to infiltrate and coordinate."

As for that last point, Gion had only known the gist before. These past few days, she'd gained a real understanding. After she gave herself to Ross, the World Government liaison tasks he'd handled were all transferred to her. In recent days, CP9 chief Spandine reported Ohara's situation to her daily, so she knew it inside out.

The CP (Cipher Pol) was a secret intelligence agency under the World Government's Enies Lobby. On the surface, only CP1 through CP8—eight different branches—handled investigations of all world affairs. In reality, the CP Organization also included CP9 and CP0, two violent organs directly under the World Government. The former dealt with special incidents, while the latter served the Celestial Dragons directly. Simply put, CP9 was above the CP Organization, and CP0 was above CP9. Given Ross's status, he could mobilize everyone from CP1 to CP9, and some of CP0 had to follow his orders too. Currently, Gion acted as his representative in CP0, ranking only slightly below Zephyr.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

A heavy footfall sounded, and Sakazuki and Zephyr appeared on the deck.

"Something wrong?"

Ross glanced at the two. It was rare to see them come to him together.

"Saint Ross, we just received intelligence that the traitor Vice Admiral Jaguar D. Saul has appeared on Ohara, suspected of leaking the Buster Call plan in advance."

Sakazuki was always blunt, getting straight to the point.

"Saul... I seem to have heard that name before."

Ross wore a smile, turning his gaze to Zephyr. The CP9 side had told him this news days ago; the Navy was much slower to receive it. He knew Saul's reputation well, but in this Buster Call, he was just a small fry. What he was curious about was how Saul related to him, that the two had come to find him.

Ross had a strong impression of this Buster Call—it was part of Robin's memories. When Robin was eight years old, the World Government discovered that her mother and the scholars of Ohara were researching Poneglyphs, so they launched a Buster Call to destroy the entire island. Saul was the first Navy officer to find Robin's mother, Olvia, and had participated in many operations to capture and investigate historical ships. Displeased with the high command's actions, he let Olvia escape and refused to carry out the Buster Call plan. After that, the Navy tried to capture Saul, but he escaped, though heavily wounded, drifting to Ohara. In the end, thanks to Kuzan's mercy, both Saul and Robin survived, while only Olvia and the Ohara scholars were wiped out.

"The Buster Call was originally to be executed by the Giant Vice Admiral Saul. But not only did he let the wanted criminal Nicole Olvia escape, he also chose to defect. Saint Ross, those Navy families in your palace were implicated because of Saul."

Zephyr felt indifferent toward Saul. Most Navy officers found the Buster Call hard to stomach, and Zephyr could understand that.

But because his defection also dragged down a large number of other Marines, ruining their families, this outcome still left Zephyr somewhat pained, to the point that he held no goodwill toward Sauron.

He admired Sauron's boldness in refusing to execute the Buster Call, but he also loathed Sauron's behavior of dragging others down with him.

People can't act on impulse; in the end, everyone must pay the price for their actions.

Perhaps it was because he saw a reflection of himself in Sauron that Zephyr's feelings toward him were so complicated.

Back then, his own mercy in refusing to kill had let some pirates run rampant, ultimately costing him his wife and children.

People like Sauron—maybe the fewer, the better.

"That fool has no idea how many more people his idiotic actions will get killed." Sakazuki snorted coldly.

His assessment of Sauron was simple: stupid and naive. Anyone unlucky enough to be his colleague was just asking for trouble.

The Buster Call never should have been necessary in the first place. The root of it all was Sauron letting Olvia escape, which led the higher-ups to decide on destroying Ohara to wipe out the scholars' base, then capture them one by one.

Besides, in chaotic times, harsh measures are needed.

Sauron's kind actions wouldn't make crime shrink; they'd only make others think the Marines were weak, driving more pirates to the seas.

Only by making everyone know that becoming a pirate meant certain death, and defying the World Government meant certain death, would the number of pirates in the world dwindle.

"What do you need me to do?"

Ross gave no clear answer, instead asking about the purpose of their visit.

As for Sauron's kindness, Ross made no judgment.

As long as it didn't drag him down, he still hoped the world had more good people.

Otherwise, he wouldn't know who to point his gun at anymore.

"Marshal Kong wants to ask how you want to handle Sauron." Sakazuki spoke bluntly.

Sakazuki understood exactly what Kong was thinking—wasn't it that if they killed Sauron outright, it would stir up ideas among the dove faction within the Marines?

But in Sakazuki's view, it would be best if all those fools in the dove faction died fighting pirates, and that fence-sitting Marshal Kong would hurry up and get lost, replaced sooner rather than later by the hardline hawk Sengoku.

In this era, Sengoku was the true top hawk, preaching the justice of ruling the world.

"Vice Admiral Sakazuki, how do you want to handle it?"

If Sakazuki could see it clearly, Ross could see it even better—he could read Kong's intentions at a glance.

Wasn't it just taking advantage of his youth to make him unwittingly take the fall?

If Kong had said it outright, Ross wouldn't have minded.

But if he wanted to play mind games, then Ross wasn't taking that blame.