How Can You Build a Navy with Insects?

Wailing pirates and frolicking marines; blood dripped from the corpses, staining the target stakes.

Conrad walked at a steady pace. "Drake, did that deadbeat father of yours ever tell you his reason for defecting?"

Drake nodded. He remembered it clearly; every time his father finished drinking, he would beat him while saying:

"Being a marine pays nothing and offers no freedom. Pirates can snatch whatever they like, and they don't have to follow any rules."

"Clinging to a useless title of justice, watching pirates eat and drink while you're miserable—it makes you so jealous you could die. You're better off becoming a pirate yourself."

Conrad said nothing, staring straight ahead as he continued to walk.

Kujaku stepped to his side and gripped his wrist. "What are you trying to do?"

"Practice archery."

Kujaku's eyes widened in astonishment. "You want to mingle with this lot?"

"I said I'm going to practice archery!"

Kujaku raised her Combat Whip, snapping it against the floor with a crack that left a groove. "Go yourself! You are not allowed to take Baby-5!"

Drake was also incredulous that Conrad would be interested in such sadistic behavior.

"How am I supposed to practice archery without her!"

Conrad wrapped an arm around Baby-5's waist and pointed toward the bow drawn to its limit in Very Good's hands. "I want..."

"A domineering bow?" Baby-5 tilted her head, her cheeks flushing red.

"Exactly!" Conrad rolled up his sleeves, revealing his bandage-wrapped arms.

Baby-5 raised her hands, resting them on Conrad's shoulders. Her supple body leaned forward, arching as she stretched.

Her red dress gathered like flames, and in an instant, a longbow—one meter eighty-eight in length, adorned with a Blazing Red Wind Pattern and resembling a fire phoenix—took shape.

One hundred meters away, Very Good finished aiming and released the string, the arrow flying toward the wailing pirate three hundred meters out.

Three hundred meters away, Conrad held the Crimson Bow horizontally, drawing it to its limit in a heartbeat, firing without an arrow.

"Hit! Another ten points!" Very Good cheered, raising his bow. "Free drinks tonight..."

Clang!

A red shadow arrived first, knocking the arrow aside.

A butterfly hairclip pinned itself into the target stake, five centimeters from the pirate's head.

The cheering ceased abruptly. Very Good and the other marines turned to look at the boy holding a longbow taller than himself.

Conrad stepped past the dangerous-looking Kujaku and walked right up to the marines. "I am asking you! Are these men all sentenced to death?"

Drake and Bling Bling exchanged a glance, then immediately followed, standing behind Conrad like guards.

Very Good observed the three of them; they were all unfamiliar faces. Having grown up at Headquarters, he asked cautiously, "Which sea and which branch are you from?"

"Neither! Why ask so many questions? Answer me!" Conrad grabbed a handful of arrows from a quiver, tossed them at his feet, and strode boldly among the marines.

Hearing they weren't from the Four Seas branches, Very Good's expression became much more respectful. Judging by Conrad's age, if his father could get him into Headquarters, he had to be at least of flag-officer rank.

Given the boy's arrogant attitude and his two guards, plus the obviously expensive bow in his hand, he was likely the child of a base Vice Admiral!

He answered sternly: "If you want to know, go check the files yourself. This is a routine execution; I have no authority to disclose information to irrelevant personnel."

Conrad was a man of chivalry. As the saying goes, a gentleman can be killed but not humiliated. To him, those who took pleasure in sadistic killings were no different from beasts.

If this weren't Marineford, he would have acted on his chivalry right then and there, shooting them all down one by one!

It was truly lamentable. His Navy shouldn't be like this; it needed change! A massive change! A wise change! How could the Navy ever be run well while surrounded by such vermin?!

"Bling Bling! Is carrying out a private execution considered illegal?"

Bling Bling was stunned, not expecting to be involved, but out of respect for the word "Justice" on his cloak, he immediately answered solemnly: "The world laws explicitly state that those who commit crimes shall be sentenced according to the law, and those who have not committed crimes shall not be punished."

"Correct!" Conrad pointed at the pirates on the stakes, his black eyes glaring with fury as he looked down at the marines, shouting sharply: "I am asking you now! What crime did these pirates commit? Under what law were they sentenced?"

Very Good was bewildered. He never expected that as a Headquarters Captain, he would be held accountable for killing a few pirates he'd grabbed on the way back for fun.

He hadn't gone through any judicial process at all.

Looking at the boy, his expression grew serious, his face as heavy as his chin. "Friend, this has nothing to do with you. I advise you not to meddle in other people's business."

"If I see it, I have to meddle!"

Conrad's spirit surged in unison with his voice; Conqueror's Haki boiled within him. Though he didn't unleash it, the pressure already began to ripple outward.

Sweat beaded on Very Good's forehead. A sense of righteous indignation pierced his thoughts. Things settled in private were usually just ignored by everyone; who actually took them seriously?

He shut his mouth, waved to his marine friends, and walked toward the pirates.

His colleagues understood immediately; they were to destroy the evidence. They rushed to grab the bodies and toss them away—without evidence, no one could investigate anything.

Seven or eight scarred, burly figures pressed forward, the scene looking quite intimidating.

But how could Conrad back down? Considering his injuries, he decided not to strike yet and give his brothers a chance to show their stuff. He roared: "Drake! Transform! Stop them!"

"Huh?" Drake's mouth hung open, forgetting who he was.

But Conrad had already stepped back, pushing him in the back with his palm.

He pushed him toward the group of menacing Marine officers led by Very Good.

Looking at the shadows cast by the Marines, Drake was so terrified that his bones grew and protruded hideously, instantly transforming him into an Allosaurus as he strained his throat to shout, "Don't come any closer!"

But having lost the ability to speak from fright, the Allosaurus could only let out a purely savage roar: "GRAAA!!!"

Pop, pop~

The faces of the Marines rippled like loose skin, pressing tight against their cheekbones as the force of the sound nearly scraped the tears right out of their eyes.

Conrad took a few heavy steps, leaping onto the head of the Allosaurus, holding his Crimson Bow horizontally as he drew an arrow, his eyes cast downward to look over the Marines.

"Good deeds have good rewards, and evil deeds have evil rewards; it is not that the time hasn't come, but that I have not yet arrived! Since I am here now, there is no reason for me to stand by and do nothing!"

Very Good panicked; he was merely a user of the Berry-Berry Fruit who could split his body apart, and this dinosaur before him was clearly not an opponent he could handle.

"I don't understand! These are pirates! Why are you bothering with them?"

"I am not bothering with pirates! I am bothering with you!"

Conrad pointed a finger toward the sky, his words cadence-filled and resonant: "I, Conrad, do not allow the existence of those who pervert the law for personal gain within Marineford, this city of Marine faith!"

The entire training ground, from east to west, echoed with Conrad's impassioned declaration.

The first step to fame begins by making an enemy of trash; only by clearly defining one's enemies will like-minded people come to join the cause.

However, the first to appear is often not a comrade, but the darkness that attempts to snuff out the budding sprout of justice.

"Shooting at a stationary target like this has no challenge at all. If you ask me, we should let the pirates go and then compete; only those that can dodge truly test one's accuracy, heh~"

A Marine officer with a gray, ghastly face, wearing a red-plumed helmet and a cloak with a basket-hilted sword at his waist, walked into the training ground, puffing out his chest and chomping on a cigar.

Conrad recognized him at a glance: Vice Admiral Onigumo, a cruel hawk who would shoot his own disobedient subordinates at will and order cannons to fire upon his own Marine ships.

"Vice Admiral Onigumo!" Very Good acted as if he had been saved, for the man was his direct superior.

"I am the one who had him teach these pirates a lesson, because these pirates have done many evil things. Little brat, do you have a problem with that?"

Onigumo exhaled a cloud of smoke, his eyes—almost entirely white—staring at Conrad atop the head of the Allosaurus.