"Tap, tap, tap."
Three crisp knocks rang out inside Zephyr's cabin. One could tell at once they were "good knocks."
Ace, Sabo, and Luffy stood before Zephyr with huge bumps on their heads, their faces full of apprehension.
They had been discovered far too quickly. Although the warship had already set sail, it had not gone very far. If Zephyr ordered the crew to turn around and send them back to Marine Headquarters, he could easily do so.
They had already pleaded their case over and over. Now, it depended on Zephyr's decision.
Besides apprehension, Ace and Sabo's eyes held intense anticipation. Luffy, on the other hand, was still young and did not yet have such a strong obsession with going to sea. He simply did not want to stay alone at Marine Headquarters. He wanted to be with Ace and Sabo, his "playmates of the same age."
Zephyr stared solemnly at the three brothers standing before him. After pondering for a long while, he finally softened beneath their hopeful gazes.
"Haah."
"You three had better behave yourselves on this ship."
"When I tell you to stay in the cabin, you stay in the cabin. If you leave the cabin, you must stay by my side."
"If any one of you disobeys me, I'll send all three of you back to Marine Headquarters!"
"Ace, Sabo, Luffy, keep an eye on each other. Don't come whining to me after you've been sent back to Marine Headquarters, saying things like, 'I didn't do anything, so why am I being sent back?'"
"Do you understand?"
Zephyr had already punished them as he should have. This matter could be treated as either serious or trivial. As the chief instructor of Marine Headquarters, the proper course of action would have been to send the three