Reason

Batia Island.

Hospital.

"Although there was an impact to the head, strangely, the force was not significant. He should recover after a period of rest."

"Understood, thank you for your trouble, Doctor." Momonga nodded expressionlessly.

The doctor gave him a complicated look before walking out of the ward with a somber expression.

In the empty ward, Momonga looked at the man lying unconscious on the hospital bed, pursed his lips, and let out a long, stifled sigh.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it all!!"

Not far away, Gion's partner roared with bloodshot eyes, slamming his fist into the wall again and again.

Wall plaster fell in rustling clumps.

On the gray-white wall, holes remained, stained with traces of blood.

"She called me Uncle... She actually called me Uncle!!!"

Gion's partner roared like a wild beast.

Blood seeped from his knuckles, yet he seemed completely unaware of it.

Gion sat motionless beside the hospital bed, her eyes closed, her fingers interlaced and pressed against her brow.

At a certain moment, she suddenly stood up.

Her exquisite eyes were bloodshot as she turned to stare fixedly at the man standing by the window, smoking.

"Darren!!"

"How can you still have the heart to smoke!!"

An inexplicable rage surged into her throat, making her voice hoarse.

"Didn't you say you were the overlord of the North Blue!?"

"Don't you think you're so powerful?"

Watching Darren finish one cigarette and immediately light another, the anger in Gion's heart intensified, her eyes brimming with tears.

"--Say something!!"

She bit her red lip tightly, the force so great it left a shocking trail of blood.

"Huu..."

Darren exhaled a long plume of smoke, flicking the ash as if he hadn't heard a word.

In the ashtray on the windowsill, cigarette butts had piled up into a small mountain.

The ward was deathly silent.

It felt like a tomb burying the hearts of those within.

Momonga watched Gion suddenly roar at Darren, opened his mouth, but ultimately couldn't say anything, his expression complex.

"What else would you have me do?"

The Marine Captain's voice suddenly broke the silence.

Gion froze.

She saw a mocking curve slowly rise from the corner of the Marine Captain's mouth.

Darren turned around slowly, sneering incessantly.

As he spoke, he glanced at the wall clock.

The color gradually drained from Gion's face.

She was left speechless.

Yes, what else could be done?

Let alone a mere North Blue Admiral or a Headquarters Captain, even if Admiral Sengoku were present... he could not change the outcome of the story.

Those were the Celestial Dragons.

The World Nobles, the Celestial Dragons, who possessed every privilege in the world.

If they dared to strike, let alone the Marines present, it was likely that every civilian on Batia Island would lose their lives because of their stupidity and impulse.

"Am... am I still alive..."

At that moment, an extremely weak voice suddenly sounded.

Gion and the others were startled by the sound and quickly turned their gaze toward the bed.

They saw the man struggle to lift his heavy eyelids, slowly regaining consciousness.

"Lia... Lia..."

He muttered in a daze, but when his peripheral vision caught sight of Darren smoking by the window, his entire body suddenly shuddered.

"Marine... Lord Darren..."

He gritted his teeth, struggling to sit up from the hospital bed, only to tumble weakly onto the floor.

"You should rest for now..." Gion stepped forward anxiously to help him, but the man waved her off.

Bloodshot eyes filled the man's gaze as he stared pleadingly at Darren's profile, his expression one of utter despair.

"Lord Darren... it was you who saved me..."

As these words left his lips, Gion and Gion's partner froze in unison.

They both recalled what the doctor had said moments ago.

The force of the impact hadn't been that great...

Could it be...

They looked at the man's filthy clothes, specifically the metal buckle on his belt, and the realization hit them simultaneously.

"Since you've survived, then live well."

Darren took a drag of his cigarette, looking at the man with a calm expression as he said indifferently:

"Under my jurisdiction, I do not permit the unnatural death of any civilian."

"No, Lord Darren..."

The man knelt on the floor, looking at the Marine Captain with a sorrowful expression.

"I beg you, please save my daughter..."

"Her mother passed away from illness when she was very young..."

"She is such a well-behaved child, so sensible, never crying or making a fuss, and she would even help me sell flowers on the street..."

"Selling flowers..." The man suddenly looked as if he had been struck by lightning.

Smack!!

He slapped himself hard across the face and began to wail loudly.

"It's all my fault... If I were more capable, if I hadn't let her go out to the streets to sell flowers... none of this would have happened..."

The man sobbed uncontrollably, slamming his forehead against the floorboards.

"I beg you, Lord Darren... save Lia... she is my everything..."

"As long as you save her, I will do anything."

"I can be your servant, I can kill for you, my garden... and, and my money, you can take it all..."

"I beg you..."

With a frantic expression, he rummaged through his mud-stained clothes, pulling out a few crumpled, dirt-caked banknotes and a pile of coins from his pockets.

Due to his physical weakness, his hands trembled violently, and the coins slipped from his grasp, clattering and scattering across the floor.

The coins spun on the ground, their surfaces smeared with mud and blood, before finally coming to a rest.

Their polished surfaces reflected the light and shadow of the world.

And the cold, stern face of the Marine Captain.

"No, you don't understand what I mean."

Darren said flatly.

He glanced at the wall clock once more, then crushed his cigarette, reached up to take the white cloak from the coat rack, and draped it over his shoulders.

The grand and cold word "Justice" on his broad back... slowly unfurled, rippling like the surging waves of the sea.

Brewing with endless iron and blood.

The man stared blankly at the Marine Captain before him, his pale face filled with confusion.

Seeing this, Darren sighed softly and stared straight into the man's eyes.

"I will say it again... under my jurisdiction, I do not permit the unnatural death of any civilian."

He swept a glance at the banknotes in the man's hand and the coins scattered across the floor.

"As for the money..."

Darren smiled.

"I have already collected it."

Having said this, Darren stepped forward and walked toward the door of the ward.

"You... where are you going?"

Gion couldn't help but ask.

For some reason, a sense of unease welled up in her heart.

Gion's partner also stared intently at Darren's retreating figure, blood dripping from his clenched fists.

"It's about time."

Darren did not turn his head, merely speaking in a flat tone.

Time?

Gion and Gion's partner were stunned.

They suddenly recalled a detail.

From the moment they entered the hospital room, Darren had been glancing at the wall clock from time to time, as if he were waiting for something.

Before they could react, Darren had already walked out of the ward.

Walking down the cold, long corridor of the hospital, his military boots produced crisp, rhythmic footsteps.

Darren's gaze gradually turned cold and arrogant.

"Darren!"

A voice suddenly rang out from behind him.

Darren stopped in his tracks and turned to look at Momonga, who had hurried to catch up.

The latter hesitated for a moment.

"Before the incident occurred, Major Gion had an interaction with that little girl; she bought flowers from her... Major Gion didn't do it on purpose..."

"I know."

Darren cut him off.

He looked at Momonga before him and smiled.

"It seems you have a good impression of Gion."

Momonga gave a wry smile, a flash of sentimentality in his eyes.

"On this sea, people who uphold justice as purely as she does are far too few."

Darren did not speak.

That was a fact.

And that was precisely why he did not dislike Gion.

Her anger was not directed at him.

She herself was well aware that, with everyone watching, no one could change the outcome of the event.

Her anger was directed more at herself.

Anger at her own incompetence.

Anger at the powerlessness of justice.

Anger at the injustice of this world.

"Is there anything else?"

Darren asked again.

Momonga was silent for a moment.

"Are you sure you want to go?"

"No Marine has ever done such a thing."

"By doing this... there is no need for you to..."

He began to stammer.

Darren suddenly laughed.

"Momonga, do you know?"

"You are right; I do have many, many reasons not to go, I could even count dozens of them off the top of my head..."

"This world is filled with all sorts of tragedies, and those caused by the Celestial Dragons are countless. I am merely a North Blue Admiral; I simply cannot manage it all."

"If I do this, I will likely bring fire upon myself. Once discovered, no one will be able to protect me."

"As a Marine, one should have understood long ago that the Marines serve the World Government. Even if one feels anger inside, it is better to just get used to it."

"There is no need to take such a huge risk for a strange little girl. If I am not careful, everything I have worked so hard to build in the North Blue will be ruined..."

"Yes, there are far too many reasons not to go."

Darren smiled.

"But as for the reasons that make me go, I have only thought of two."

"However, these two reasons are enough to overturn all the reasons not to go mentioned above."

He said each word clearly, his tone arrogant and cold, like icy nails being driven deep into the air.

"First, the North Blue is my territory, and I do not allow such things to happen on my turf... even if he is a Celestial Dragon."

"Second, that guy's face is so disgusting that it gives me the urge to kill him."

Darren grinned, a smile that was almost cruel.

"--and it was the kind that simply couldn't be controlled no matter what."

I ask for everything, I am endlessly grateful.