Revolution?

If not for Nereus, Dragon would have followed the original course of events, threatening his superior with a gun and forcibly demanding that his commanding officer evacuate the innocent civilians from the island.

That was why, after returning to Marine Headquarters, he had been locked up in the underground detention center.

No matter the reason, threatening a superior with a gun was a serious crime in any army.

As for ambushing a Celestial Dragon with a tranquilizer gun and fleeing with the infant Shanks and Shamrock, those were not the main issues.

It was not that the incident was insignificant, but that no one had noticed him at all. The Celestial Dragon hit by the tranquilizer dart had been among the most worthless of them and could not find the person who had attacked him.

Mafi had taken Shamrock away, and Whitebeard's attack had turned the aftermath into a hindrance, leaving her no time to check on Dragon or pay attention to a nobody like him.

Even if she had noticed him, it would not have been a major issue in a sense. After all, Garp had directly attacked Saturn and Imu, who had possessed Saturn's body.

Garp did not know who Imu was, but Imu certainly knew everyone who had attacked him.

Even so, Garp was still promoted as a Marine hero.

Now, Dragon was simply one of the Marines who had gone missing during the God Valley Incident. There were countless soldiers like him.

On a battlefield packed with monsters, ordinary soldiers were nothing but numbers. They were classified as missing only because their corpses had not yet been found.

"Work under you?"

"Is that so strange? I have quite a few humans under my command. Though we are different races, everyone gets along well."

"No, I mean... what kind of work..."

"Have you not already guessed? You Marines never stop shouting about justice, but whose justice is it, really?

When all was said and done, that justice was merely an excuse.

No thought was required. You only needed to obey orders. Individual thought would only hinder the will of the army. If I remembered correctly, that was one of your regulations."

"Why do you know about these things?"

Nereus's words felt all too familiar to Dragon. His squad leader had lectured him in exactly that manner on God Valley.

It had been the same during recruit training. In a sense, Dragon had been a highly unqualified recruit for the Marines.

"Naturally, by understanding my enemy. From another perspective, that saying is not entirely wrong. Soldiers do need to obey.

But a qualified army should at least know what it is fighting for, rather than hiding behind justice as a fig leaf.

The Marines obey the World Government, and the World Government serves the Celestial Dragons. Unless the cancer of the Celestial Dragons is removed, the Marines will never change.

Young Marine, one final question. Of your Marine leadership, how many knew nothing about what just happened, and how many knew every detail?"

The moment the fig leaf was torn away, it exposed far more than one problem. Nereus's question continued to echo in Dragon's mind.

Yeah... how many people in the Marines...

The higher-ups must have known. The orders for this mission came from headquarters. Admiral Kong's words...

Since Garp was his father, Dragon was fairly familiar with the Marine leadership. Since its founding, the Marines had operated under a three-Admiral system.

Following the principle of preferring vacancies to inferior candidates, an Admiral's position would remain empty if no one was strong enough, rather than risk the humiliation of defeat.

The most important criterion in the selection process was strength. Even a weak Admiral had to be weak only among those with Admiral-level power.

Of the current three Admirals, one had grown old and retired, while another had been killed by Rocks. Only Kong remained.

Dad... no... he wouldn't...

The Marines did not lack suitable successors. It was widely believed that Zephyr, Sengoku, and Garp would become the next three Admirals.

The three, then Vice Admirals, were already pillars of the Marines. If his father had also known about what had happened at God Valley...

Dragon shook his head, trying to cast that chilling thought from his mind.

"The Celestial Dragons have ruled for too long. So long that too many people believe everything they do is justified. You saw those soldiers on God Valley, did you not?

They did not think it was wrong to help the Celestial Dragons carry out that massacre. If a great tree merely had a few bugs, then removing the pests would naturally restore everything.

But if the very foundation is rotten, hollowed out from within by worms, all to maintain a bright and glorious facade, then things become far more complicated."

Nereus seemed to be talking about unrelated matters, yet the implication was unmistakable.

"At the very least... the Celestial Dragons' rule has to be broken... but their strength..."

Dragon had once believed that Celestial Dragons were all useless trash, capable only of throwing their weight around and demanding protection from others.

But today had made him realize that the Celestial Dragons had powerful figures among them as well.

Had Whitebeard not casually intervened, that Celestial Dragon who could fire lasers from his mouth would certainly have killed him.

"The World Government has existed for centuries. I never said you should storm Mary Geoise immediately. If you want to accomplish anything, you need time to grow.

You may not see results in the short term, but doing something is better than doing nothing. Think it over slowly, young man."

Social systems and class rule were not immutable. Rotten things were destined to be discarded. If people shrank back out of fear of the chaos brought by change, then the world might as well have remained in its primitive stage.

Because his own world had countless pioneers, Nereus could better understand such matters. But upon these seas, the World Government's rule was deeply entrenched.

Coupled with its overwhelming military power, many people could not even entertain the thought of resistance. For Dragon, the gates to a New World were gradually opening.

Moonlight descended, and darkness shrouded the sea. Many aboard the ship had already fallen into deep sleep, their lives as fugitives having placed immense strain on both body and mind.

Quite a few others stared blankly at the pitch-black sea. They were the lucky ones, having escaped that island alive, but many had died there as well, including their friends and family.

"Babel, go get some rest. I'll take the helm."

"Big brother, I'm not tired yet."

"Go on. I'll call you when it's time to take over."

At their level of strength, let alone going days and nights without sleep, fighting for days and nights was no great difficulty.

Still, proper rest was also a way to remain at peak condition.

Though Nereus's power did not fear sunlight, it became even stronger at night.

Moreover, he could recover his stamina by drinking blood, so he often kept watch while they were traveling.

Late into the night, someone would occasionally jolt awake from a nightmare, needing a long while before lying down again.

Watching the scene aboard the ship, Dragon remained awake through the night. Nereus's words seemed to have pointed something out to him in advance.

The word revolution gradually began to take shape in Dragon's mind...