Revolution?

If not for Nereus, Dragon would have followed the original timeline, pointed a gun at his superior, and forcibly demanded that the innocent civilians on the island be evacuated.

That was why, upon returning to Marine Headquarters, Dragon had been locked in the underground detention center.

Whatever the reason, threatening a superior with a gun in an army was a grave offense.

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

It was not that the incident was not serious, but that no one had noticed him at all. The Celestial Dragon struck by the tranquilizer gun had been among the most useless of their kind and could not even identify who had attacked him.

Mafi had taken Shamrock away, and Whitebeard's attack had turned the area into a slowdown zone. She had had no time to check on Dragon, nor had she paid attention to a nobody like him.

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

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

Even under those circumstances, Garp had still been promoted as a Marine hero.

As for Dragon now, he was simply one of the Marines who had gone missing during the God Valley Incident. There were countless soldiers like that.

On a battlefield crowded with monsters, ordinary soldiers were merely numbers. They were only classified as missing because their corpses had yet to be found.

"Work under you?"

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

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

"Hadn't you already guessed? Your Marines keep shouting about justice, but whose justice is it, exactly?

In the end, that justice is only an excuse.

There is no need for any thought. You only need to obey orders. Individual ideas are nothing more than obstacles to the army's will. If I remember correctly, that is one of your regulations."

"Why do you know about these things?"

Nereus's words sounded deeply familiar to Dragon. Back at God Valley, his squad leader had lectured him in exactly the same way.

It had been the same during recruit training. In a sense, Dragon had been a highly unqualified new recruit by Marine standards.

"Naturally, one must understand one's enemies. From another perspective, that statement 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 that so-called justice.

The Marines obey the World Government. The World Government serves the Celestial Dragons. Unless the Celestial Dragons, this blight, are eradicated, the Marines will never change.

Young Marine, one last question. Among your Marine higher-ups, how many do you think know nothing about what just happened, and how many know everything?"

The moment that fig leaf was torn away, far more than one problem was exposed. Nereus's question echoed endlessly through Dragon's mind.

Yeah, among the Marines... how many people...

The higher-ups definitely know about this. The order for this mission came from Headquarters. Admiral Kong's words...

Because Garp was his father, Dragon was fairly familiar with the Marine higher-ups. Since the Marines' founding, they had maintained a three-Admiral structure.

Following the principle of quality over quantity, if no one met the required standard, an Admiral's position would simply remain vacant rather than risk the embarrassment of defeat.

The most crucial criterion in that evaluation was strength. Even if someone was weak, they had to be weak only compared to those with Admiral-level strength.

Of the current three Admirals, one had retired due to old age, one had been killed by Rocks, and only Kong remained.

Dad... no... he shouldn't...

It was not as though the Marines lacked suitable successors. At present, it was widely believed that Zephyr, Sengoku, and Garp would become the future three Admirals.

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

Dragon shook his head, trying to shake that terrifying thought from his mind.

"The Celestial Dragons have ruled for too long. So long that too many people believe what they do is only natural. You saw those soldiers on God Valley, didn't you?

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

But if its very foundation is rotten, if its interior has long since been eaten hollow just to maintain a bright and glamorous surface, then things become far more complicated."

Nereus seemed to be speaking of an unrelated subject, but the meaning was perfectly clear.

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

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

But today had made him realize that the Celestial Dragons had powerful individuals as well.

If not for Whitebeard's casual strike, that Celestial Dragon capable of firing lasers from his mouth would have killed him outright.

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

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

Social structures and class rule were never 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 social stage.

Because his world had countless pioneers, Nereus could better understand such things. But on this sea, the World Government's rule was deeply entrenched.

Combined with its overwhelming military strength, many people could not even bring themselves to resist. For Dragon, the gates to a New World were gradually opening before him.

Moonlight descended, and darkness shrouded the sea. Many aboard the ship had already fallen into deep sleep, their lives on the run 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, staying awake for days and nights was nothing. Even fighting for days and nights was not difficult.

But proper rest was also a way to maintain peak condition.

Though Nereus's abilities did not fear sunlight, they were far stronger at night.

In addition, he could recover his strength by drinking blood, so he often stood watch while they were traveling.

Deep into the night, someone would occasionally jolt awake from a nightmare, only lying back down after a long while.

Watching the scene aboard the ship, Dragon stayed awake all night. Nereus's words seemed to have illuminated certain things for him ahead of time.

The word revolution was gradually taking shape in Dragon's mind...