At Yasopp's undisguised mockery, everyone else fell silent.
Beckman glanced at him, then slowly swept his gaze over the others.
He understood perfectly.
After Yasopp's outburst, swaying the others would be difficult.
At their level, no one who chose to become a pirate was afraid of death.
It wasn't that Lucky Roux and the others couldn't bear to see Snake and their comrades die in battle. They simply felt those deaths had been pointless, and feared that one day, their own deaths would be just as meaningless.
But ultimately, Lucky Roux and the others weren't afraid of dying either.
With Yasopp goading them like that, getting them to betray Shanks had become extremely difficult.
Still, difficult was all it was.
He was Beckman, after all, the former vice captain of the Red Hair Pirates.
"Then do you really think I'm afraid of dying?"
Beckman gently turned the question back on them. With a cigarette between his lips, he quietly watched his familiar comrades.
"No!"
Lucky Roux's answer was firm, but then he looked at Beckman hesitantly.
"That's why I don't understand. Why did you leave in the first place, Vice Captain?"
In every battle, Beckman had charged into the front lines alongside Shanks.
What's more, Beckman had been their strategist, directing their movements and accounting for every possibility.
It was no exaggeration to call him the Red Hair Pirates' other pillar of strength besides Shanks.
Even the arrogant Yasopp had felt nothing but respect for the Beckman of old.
Someone like that should never have been the first to turn traitor.
Now, even Yasopp looked at Beckman without a word.
He, too, was deeply baffled by Beckman's defection to the World Government.
When Beckman had left, everything had happened too suddenly. On top of that, Yasopp had gotten himself into