The Whole Village Wiped Out?

"Locke Village really has no able-bodied adults left!"

"Everyone remaining is either an old man with one foot in the grave or a child whose feathers haven't even grown in yet! You want twenty able-bodied adults—you're trying to cut off Locke Village's roots!"

Ron kowtowed frantically as he cried out in despair.

Watching their usually bold and powerful village chief humble himself so completely for their sake, the villagers around him covered their mouths and wept soundlessly.

When Rochi pulled Roski to the edge of the square and hid behind a broken wall, what he saw was his father—once as steadfast and imposing as a mountain—lying at another man's feet like a worm, groveling and begging for mercy.

Rochi's fists clenched tight in an instant, his nails digging deep into his palms as blood dripped through his fingers and splashed onto the ground.

This was the sorrow of those at the bottom!

No matter how tall or powerfully built you were, before the violent machine that represented the World Government's ruling hegemony, you did not even have the right to breathe loudly!

"Oh? No able-bodied adults?"

The gaunt officer narrowed his eyes slightly, a mocking curve appearing at the corner of his mouth. His leather boot stepped without ceremony onto the back of Ron's head, grinding Ron's face viciously against the stone pavement.

"Old bastard, are you saying you intend to defy the will of the World Government? Defy the most supreme 'justice' on these seas?!"

"No! I wouldn't dare! Never!"

Even as his cheeks were scraped bloody by the rough stone, Ron did not dare resist in the slightest.

Trembling, he reached into his clothes and carefully pulled out a battered cloth pouch stained with sweat and warmed by his body heat.

With shaking hands, he untied the pouch. Inside was a thick stack of Beli in various denominations.

There was a full five hundred thousand!

It was the life-saving money the entire Locke Village had scraped together over a whole year while going hungry and freezing in the cold!

It even included the money he had saved up for his son Rochi's future wife!

"Sir... Officer, sir!"

As though grasping his last lifeline, Ron raised the five hundred thousand Beli high with both hands and offered it beside the officer's leg, his face plastered with a fawning, miserable smile.

"This is the village's token of respect for you officers, for tea."

"Please... lower the quota. Lower it to five—no, three! You can even take this old bag of bones if you have to!"

At the sight of that thick pouch of Beli, the gaunt officer's eyes lit up at once.

He snatched the pouch away, moistened his fingers with saliva, and rapidly flipped through the bills, unable to conceal the greed in his eyes.

"Five hundred thousand Beli..."

The officer sneered and slipped the pouch naturally into the inner pocket of his greatcoat.

Seeing the officer take the money, Ron's tightly wound body finally relaxed slightly. He had just forced out a grateful smile of relief. "Thank you, officer. Thank you, officer..."

However—

"Bang—!"

A dull, thunderous sound rang out.

The officer suddenly raised his iron-plated high leather boot and, as if kicking a stray dog, drove it viciously into Ron's face!

"Crack!"

The sharp snap of his broken nose echoed clearly across the entire square!

Ron's nearly two-hundred-pound, burly body spun one hundred and eighty degrees through the air like a kite with its string cut, then crashed heavily into the crowd five meters away!

"Puh—!"

Ron spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with broken teeth. His eyes rolled back, and he fainted on the spot!

"Dad—!"

At the edge of the square, Roski let out a heart-rending scream and nearly rushed out, but Rochi clamped a hand tightly over her mouth and forcibly held her behind the wall.

Rochi stared fixedly at his father lying in a pool of blood. A chilling scarlet glow actually surfaced in his pitch-black pupils.

"Ron!"

"Village Chief!"

The villagers erupted into terrified cries, and the crowd instantly descended into chaos.

"Shut the fuck up, all of you!"

"Bang—!"

The gaunt officer drew his pistol and pulled the trigger into the sky again.

Amid the spreading gun smoke, the soldiers raised their rifles in perfect unison, the dark muzzles aimed at the unarmed villagers.

The shadow of death instantly fell over all of Locke Village.

"Pah!"

The officer spat a thick gob of phlegm viciously onto the ground. His eyes were as cold as if he were looking at a swarm of ants, and his voice roared across the empty square like an evil ghost.

"Who the hell do you think you are? A lowlife worse than a sewer rat, and you dare use this paltry sum to bargain with me?!"

He strode to the unconscious Ron, planted his bloodstained boot on Ron's chest, and swept his gaze over the villagers trembling in terrified silence before shouting harshly.

"Listen up! When I take your money, I'm doing you a favor!"

"These five hundred thousand Beli are merely your fine for daring to talk back to the World Government just now!"

"As for the quota of twenty able-bodied adults, not one less!"

He raised his wrist and checked the time, cruelly passing judgment on the fate of the entire village.

"Tomorrow morning! Before sunrise! If twenty lively, healthy adults haven't been selected and sent to the docks..."

"Then Locke Village will be a band of traitors sheltering pirates and defying the will of the World Government!"

The officer abruptly drew the long blade at his waist. It glinted with a grim, icy light beneath the moon as he roared each word.

"Then it won't just be conscription! I'll bring men here and flatten this place, so everyone in the village... dies! Every! Last! One!"

The icy threat was like a sharp steel blade piercing to the bone, stabbing viciously into everyone's hearts.

After saying that, the gaunt officer disdainfully sheathed his blade, turned around, and swaggered toward the docks amid a crowd of fully armed soldiers.

"Fall out! We're heading to the docks to drink and eat meat. We'll come back tomorrow morning to haul off this bunch of livestock!"

The soldiers broke into shrill laughter and marched away.

All they left behind were villagers kneeling on the ground and weeping in despair, along with Village Chief Ron lying in a pool of blood, his fate unknown.

A breeze swept through. The square fell deathly silent, with only heavy despair spreading through the air.

Behind the broken wall.

"Waaah... Dad..."

Roski collapsed onto the ground, covering her face as she sobbed uncontrollably, her small body trembling violently.

Rochi, standing beside her, said nothing.

He did not cry, nor did he lose his mind and rush out to fight for his life.

He merely stood quietly in the shadows, watching the soldiers' retreating backs, watching the greatcoat of the gaunt officer at their head sway in the night.

He understood all too well that even if he rushed out now, what could a six-year-old child do barehanded against more than twenty muskets ready to fire?

That would not be heroism. That would be stupidity.