"That's rough, Buggy."
On the deck of the Orange Garden, Xia Nuo picked up his fishing rod and set down the newspaper he'd just bought, laughing so hard he doubled over.
And it wasn't Xia Nuo's fault for setting him up.
With Arlong dead, the East Blue was full of nothing but small fry. He really couldn't find a second character who fit what Mouse had described over the phone as "hiding one's true abilities."
There was no helping it. He could only let Lord Buggy take the blame for this.
With the holder of Conqueror's Haki luck, surely he wouldn't capsize over such a minor squall.
Actually, the Marine Headquarters' extermination fleet might not necessarily have intended to wipe out the Buggy Pirates.
As long as they scared them out of the East Blue and forced them into the Grand Line, the mission would count as a success.
The Four Seas were the foundation of the World Government's rule. Their population and territory far surpassed those of the Grand Line. The East Blue, in particular, had enjoyed a long period of peace since Roger's execution and couldn't tolerate too much upheaval.
The Grand Line, on the other hand, was more like a battle-royale track prepared for pirates. There was no need to deliberately interfere; their mutual slaughter alone would wipe out seventy or eighty percent of them.
The fishing rod remained motionless in his hands, with not the slightest movement coming through.
Xia Nuo didn't care.
Fishing had been an amateur hobby he'd developed in his previous life as an office drone, but he'd hardly touched it since reincarnating.
He'd only picked up the rod now to calm his overly taut state of mind, which still hadn't fully recovered. He'd casually used half a red-bean bun as bait and