Alabasta, within the royal palace.
Longinus stood before the solemn-faced Vergo and the ashamed Rice.
"So, the mission failed?" Longinus murmured.
"My apologies, sir." Vergo said seriously, "I underestimated that group. I never expected that King who stole power to possess such strength!"
Longinus was not particularly surprised. The senior officers of the Four Emperors were probably somewhat stronger than those of the Shichibukai.
"I was careless too. I was captured after slipping up, and it took tremendous effort to escape." Rice lowered his head. "Sir, please punish me."
As his words fell, the atmosphere in the hall seemed to freeze.
Seeing the deathly silence around him, Rice could not help looking up.
Longinus wore a faint smile. "Did even your personality change after escaping? You never used to call me sir."
Rice's expression shifted slightly. Just as he was about to explain, Longinus suddenly shouted.
"Wake up!"
The voice seemed to carry a soul-shaking intimidation. The vast, ocean-like pressure tore Rice's sunken consciousness free.
Such powerful Aura. Even Doffy might not compare to him, right? Longinus had already refined his Conqueror's Haki to the point where he could wield it at will. Vergo had not experienced it firsthand, but from the faintly wrinkled and distorted ripples in the air, he could roughly guess just how immense that man's caliber was.
"Ahhh!" Rice let out a low roar. His eyes gradually cleared, and once he understood what had happened, he was nearly overcome by shame and fury.
"Senior, I... I..." Rice could not catch his breath, so he turned to leave. "I'll go settle accounts with that bastard right now!"
"Come back." Longinus's unquestionable tone stopped Rice in his tracks. "In your current state, even if you returned to the Saint Lucia Kingdom, you would only suffer this humiliation all