Cindry would fall from the stage at the Opera House and die.
A scene surfaced in Conrad's mind: a spotlight illuminating a corpse sprawled in the audience, a pool of blood on the forehead. He couldn't tell whether it was a memory resurfacing or his mind making a connection.
But he knew this woman was a good person, someone who deserved to live.
He had never been able to stand by and watch good people get bullied, just as he could never stand by and watch scum commit evil.
So he launched himself with Geppo, shooting beneath the dazzling lights and across the audience. He knew he would be attacked, so there was no way he could go without defending himself.
"Baby-5."
"Hm?"
"Get me a shield!"
"Sure!"
The Bawang Spear transformed. No one knew Conrad's build better than Baby-5 did; she had personally measured him for everything from his undershirt to his socks.
So the shield she created couldn't possibly expose even an inch of Conrad's skin.
Conrad didn't even see the enemy firing at him. The shaft of the spear he'd been holding around Baby-5's waist had already become the shield's grip.
Sharp clangs rang out, their faint vibrations passing through the dark, upright shield into his palm.
He landed on the stage beneath the spotlight, grabbed Cindry by the waistband of her dress, and stepped behind the curtain.
In the brief glance he'd cast toward the audience as he turned, he had seen a pale, bizarre face with red lips, smiling from a box in the front row.
"Who are you?" Cindry asked, panic written across her face, as if she'd just woken from a deep dream.
"The Navy." Conrad was looking for an exit when he saw the wall backstage catch fire. Ain had melted a hole through it.
He went through the opening and returned to the line of Navy rifles, entrusting Cindry to the protection of the rear ranks.
Conrad's gaze settled on Laffitte. He remembered the man's first appearance vividly.
He had infiltrated a meeting between the Shichibukai and senior Navy officers alone, negotiating on behalf of Blackbeard, one of the future Four Emperors.
His abilities remained unknown to this day.
"You... you... sigh..." Shuzo, the big man who had just come to after fainting, came running over, swinging both wrists of his Longarm Tribe arms and raising his greatsword.
"I've already reported the situation to Vice Admiral Aokiji, but he's on his way to reinforce the first squad and can't get here in time. The first squad, sweeping the casinos on Twin Snake Island, has also run into a formidable enemy."
Conrad looked up at the stars again. No wonder the omen had been so dire. He'd been wondering how dangerous this could be with Aokiji ready to provide support from the warship in the rear.
Ain suddenly asked, "You said you were reading fortunes just now. What did you draw? That song with the four in it—was it a bad sign?"
Conrad suddenly smiled with confidence and slammed his shield into the ground. "Good! Very good!"
Then, brows raised and eyes blazing, he lifted his chin and pointed across the crowd from left to right, each word ringing clear as he bellowed:
"Navy enforcement! Anyone who gets in our way will be shot on the spot!"
Although one wall of the Opera House was missing, his voice echoed off the other three, its reverberations repeating until everyone in the hall had heard him.
For a moment, they all looked torn. Their eyes shifted away from the stage, bewildered and afraid, to the Navy troops led by Conrad.
They looked toward Tony, the young master of the Marlon Family, and the Mafia bodyguards standing before the king, a wall of flesh.
"Who are you? Do you know who I am?" King Lucas called through a gap in the human wall. He had been the one to order the shooting just moments ago.
The Revolutionary Army had been causing trouble lately. He'd heard they specifically targeted wealthy kings, and he'd been worried, so whenever anything unexpected happened, his security detail's policy was to kill first and ask questions later.
"Are you deaf, scum? I'm Navy!" Conrad shouted, carrying his shield as he pushed through the crowd and stepped forward.
"Get over here and accept our protection! You're a king, for crying out loud, hiding behind the Mafia! Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
"You! You... what's your name?" Lucas was nearly beside himself with rage. Even at the Reverie, he was a man of standing, someone whose words carried weight.
"I've got nothing to hide! I'm Conrad!" A rush of domineering blood surged through Conrad's heart. He held his head high, unable to see heaven or earth for what they were, and raised one finger.
"I'll count to three! If you don't come over, we'll open fire on the Mafia! If you get hit by mistake, that's just your bad luck! Three..."
"Don't shoot! I'm coming, I'm coming!" King Lucas's pupils contracted violently. His cigar singed his mustache, and he dropped it, fumbling to pat it out for a long while.
He looked at Tony beside him, gave an awkward chuckle, and said, "Young people don't know any better. I'll go over and teach him a lesson. Chief Laffitte, escort me."
Laffitte smiled without a word, lifted his cane, and gave it a slight shake, tapping it against his ring with a chime.
The king's smile froze instantly. Anger flared in his eyes as he turned toward Conrad and shouted, "Which branch are you from? Get your superior over here! I want to see your colonel!"
With his view blocked, Conrad couldn't see what was happening, but his keen instincts told him that something was wrong with the sudden change in the king's tone and mood.
He reached back, took a Fire Pistol from Bling Bling, and pulled the trigger without hesitation. Then he reloaded and fired three shots, blasting through the heads of two bulky Mafia bodyguards.
"I'm from Headquarters! My superior is Vice Admiral Aokiji, a future Marine Admiral! I took part in the West Blue Buster Call! I'm a ruthless, battle-hardened powerhouse!"
Blood streamed down their foreheads as the two bodyguards' broad, heavy bodies crumpled to the ground, worthless as scraps.
But a third man, bald and dressed in black, swiftly raised his steel-cable right arm and stopped the bullets.
As the bodies fell, the audience came to their senses. The noblewomen covered their faces and screamed without stopping.
"Shut up! Everyone, hands on your heads and get down!" Conrad snatched a rifle from a Marine on his right and fired a shot into the air. His face was so dark that only the whites of his eyes and teeth showed.
Bling Bling copied him, grabbing a rifle from the man beside him and firing into the air. "Navy enforcement! Anyone who gets in our way will be shot on the spot!"
Seeing him take action, the others hurriedly gaped, then lined up shoulder to shoulder, grabbing rifles from those beside them and shooting into the air.
"Enforce the law! Anyone who gets in our way... will be shot!"
The ladies clamped their hands over their mouths and wept. The hall fell quiet as they hid behind the men, trembling.
"Aokiji... the West Blue Buster Call... the one who destroyed Ohara nine years ago?"
The gentlemen, though, kept their heads down without a word, crouching with their hands on their heads in perfect form, like cotton workers cowering beneath a whip.
Even if they didn't know the details of Aokiji's deeds, the mere mention of his fearsome reputation was enough. Tony Marlon could no longer hold back.
He still had no idea what was going on. He'd only come to watch an opera and take some woman home to sleep with her seventeen or eighteen times.
Did they really need to make such a fuss?
Besides, he hadn't even made a move yet!
Had that bitch Cindry taken precautions against him in advance?
"Colonel Conrad?" Tony called out. He guessed the leader had to be at least a colonel, and figured it couldn't hurt to address him that way.
"May I ask what your mission here is?"
Bang!
Another bullet struck a bodyguard in the chest, while the bodyguard's return shot was blocked by Conrad's Black Tortoise Shield.
"You see the Aokiji Buster Force and still don't get down with your hands on your head? You even dare to fire back at us!"
"Buster Force, listen up! Open fire! Anyone still standing gets no quarter! Kill first, discuss it later!"
Bling Bling saluted in response. "Understood!"
"Un-derstood!" For the first time, Kujaku realized that Kuzan's nickname could sound so imposing.
As the eldest son of the Marlon Family, one of the five great Mafia families of West Blue, Tony had never seen a Navy officer this brazen in his life.
His already bloodless face turned as green as the king's mustache beside him.
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