Still Unable to Escape Calamity

"Saint Mars, Saint Sumer, the investigation has been completed. The ones who attacked the warship were the Franky Family."

"The culprits, Franky and the Straw Hat crew, have all been captured."

The battle was over.

The Marines cleared the battlefield.

On the deck.

Sumer and Saint Mars sat in lounge chairs, with steaming coffee on the small table beside them.

Doll came over to report after handling everything.

On a nearby recliner, Aokiji had pulled down his sleep mask and fallen asleep.

"The Franky Family?"

Saint Marcus Mars elegantly lifted his coffee and took a sip, his expression utterly indifferent.

"They are a gang of thugs who make a living dismantling ships. Their leader is Franky."

"Execute them all!!!"

"Saint Mars, there are over a hundred of them. Are they all to be executed?"

Saint Marcus Mars's merciless order startled Doll. After hesitating for a moment, she carefully said,

"The families of those thugs involved in the attack are to be executed as well—"

Saint Marcus Mars's eyes were icy, and his imposing presence made it difficult for Doll to breathe.

Including the thugs' families, wouldn't that mean killing hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people?

Doll opened her mouth, but in the end, she said nothing.

"Wait."

"Spare Franky."

Just as Doll was preparing to carry out the order with a grave expression, Sumer spoke.

He intended to keep Franky alive for now and see whether he would join the Straw Hat crew. If he did, he would become another valuable sacrifice in the future.

"Yes!"

Doll glanced at Saint Marcus Mars. Seeing that he had no objection, she nodded and left.

Pururururu~

At that moment, the Den Den Mushi in Rob Lucci's pocket, as he stood behind Sumer, suddenly rang.

He stepped aside to answer it, and his expression turned cold after hearing the report.

"Saint Sumer, the hotel has been attacked. Both your room and Saint Mars's room were ransacked, and your two slaves were rescued by the criminals!"

Lucci hung up the Den Den Mushi, walked behind Sumer, and reported in a low voice.

"Hm?!"

Sumer raised an eyebrow as he lifted his coffee. After a brief thought, he had already guessed who was responsible.

After all, there were not many people who would collude with Franky.

If they had merely rescued Nami and Nico Robin, he truly would not have known who to suspect.

But combined with the fact that both his room and Saint Marcus Mars's room had been ransacked, the answer was obvious.

"It seems this attack was planned. The enemy even knew how to create a diversion and strike on two fronts!"

"Their target was the Pluton blueprints."

Saint Marcus Mars set down his coffee cup and hit the nail on the head. He had clearly also guessed the enemy's true objective.

"Go arrest Iceburg, the mayor of Water 7. My two slaves should be in his hands."

"Yes!"

Behind them.

Kaku and the others were initially stunned, then suddenly understood.

According to the intelligence they possessed, Mayor Iceburg and Franky had once both been Tom's apprentices.

Perhaps.

Mayor Iceburg had been involved in the Franky Family's attack on the warship.

Otherwise, how could it have been such a coincidence? Chaos had just broken out here when the hotel was ransacked over there.

Creak~

Bruno opened a door in the air, and Kaku, Kumadori, Jabra, and Fukurou entered one after another.

"Saint Mars, enjoy your coffee—"

Sumer finished his coffee to perk himself up, then rose from his chair and stretched lazily.

He was going to check on the Straw Hat crew.

Saint Marcus Mars merely nodded in response to Sumer's greeting, then somehow produced a newspaper from nowhere.

Before long.

Sumer, Lucci, and Califa arrived before the iron cage. This time, every member of the Straw Hat crew had been fitted with Seastone handcuffs.

Franky and Enel were locked up inside as well.

Earlier.

Sumer had thought Enel had escaped, but Bruno had quickly found him hiding in a corner piled with barrels.

There was no helping it.

With Seastone handcuffs on, Enel could barely even stand.

So earlier, he could only wriggle forward through the chaos like a maggot, trying to find a key that could unlock the Seastone handcuffs.

Unfortunately.

The goddess of fortune had not been on Enel's side.

"Get the ship's doctor over here. Don't let them die!"

"Yes."

Standing before the iron cage, Sumer looked at Zoro and Sanji, who were half-dead and already unconscious. He knew they would not die so easily, but what if they did?

"You damned Celestial Dragon, what have you done to Nami and Robin?!"

Luffy was still as spirited as ever, his mind constantly occupied by Robin and Nami's safety.

Usopp and Chopper's lips were pale, and they did not look to be in very good condition either.

But they both glared viciously at Sumer, equally desperate to learn Nami and Robin's condition.

Yet Sumer did not answer.

Before they realized it.

The horizon turned pale with dawn, and the faint light surged over the earth like a tide.

Day had broken.

On the warship's deck.

Sumer and Saint Marcus Mars enjoyed breakfast while watching the sunrise.

After seeing Luffy, Enel, and the others, Sumer had even gone back for another nap.

Until Kaku and the other four brought Iceburg and the shipwrights from his company in.

At that moment.

Iceburg and the shipwrights, all bound tightly, knelt on the deck with barely any breath left in them. Nami and Robin were among them as well.

"Saint Mars, Saint Sumer, after severe interrogation, they confessed to everything."

"Last night, the three of them broke into the hotel under Mayor Iceburg's orders and rescued Nami the Cat Burglar and Nico Robin, the Demon Child."

"Chapapa~"

Fukurou pointed at Iceburg and the others as he reported to Sumer.

At first.

When they found Iceburg, he had refused to admit it. Only after they threatened him with lives and the shipwrights' families did he confess.

They had also found the Cat Burglar and the Demon Child in the basement of Iceburg's mansion.

"Drag them all away and deal with them."

Before Sumer could speak, Saint Marcus Mars gave the order directly. Then he looked at the Marine colonel standing guard nearby.

"When will the warship be repaired?"

"Five Elders, it will take at least eight hours!"

The colonel stood straight and answered after making a careful estimate.

"Eight hours?"

Saint Marcus Mars's expression darkened.

According to the original plan, they should have already departed for Mary Geoise by now.

But after the Franky Family's disturbance last night, the warship had been damaged. It could not set sail without repairs.

Fortunately, they were in Water 7, where many repair materials could be found in the various dockyard warehouses.

Had this happened on another island with limited supplies, they would not have been able to set sail for three to five days.

"Five hours. The warship must set sail!"

"Yes!"

Saint Marcus Mars issued another unquestionable order.

"If there's nothing else, I'll go back to sleep~"

Sumer yawned, ready to return for another nap.

After waking up, he still needed to train and temper his will or something.

Not long after Sumer returned to the hotel with Nami and Robin.

The Marines arrested a large number of Franky Family thugs, along with their families, as well as members of the Galley-La Company led by Iceburg.

All of them were escorted to the shore.

There were well over a thousand people.

Under the watchful eyes of many Water 7 citizens and people from all walks of life, every last one of them was executed.

Blood gathered into crimson streams, flowing into the sea and swiftly staining the entire shoal red.

It was an utterly horrific sight.

But Saint Marcus Mars, who had given the order, did not care.

Because in his eyes, they were nothing more than lowly insects.

No one knew whether Franky, along with the executed Iceburg, would regret implicating so many people for their own selfish desires.

The key was that, in the end, all it accomplished was making Saint Mars and the others remain in Water 7 for five more hours.