Leaving, Confirmation, Clown

"Thank you, Lord Imu!!!"

Seeing that Manmayer Gunko was about to trip him up again, Sumer immediately expressed his gratitude. With his head lowered, his eyes were filled with sinister malice.

Damn it!

Once he got back on his feet, he would make that stupid underwear-wearing woman pay.

"All of you, leave."

Nerona Imu slowly walked deeper into the flower chamber, no longer paying any attention to Sumer, Manmayer Gunko, or the others.

He needed to carefully consider and process the future events Sumer had revealed.

Whether they were true or false would be known once Mars returned from Sky Island.

"Lord Imu is still too merciful!"

"Stare~"

"I'll keep watching you. You'd better pray that everything is true and that you can prove yourself. Otherwise—"

Seeing that Lord Imu had made up his mind, Manmayer Gunko turned to Sumer and snorted coldly.

However.

Sumer simply ignored her, which only made Manmayer Gunko even angrier.

This damned lowly insect.

A petty man drunk on success.

"Mr. Mars, time is of the essence. Let's go!"

Sumer showed Manmayer Gunko only the back of his head. He might like beautiful women, but he was not some idiot who would grovel or be unable to move whenever he saw one.

She had obviously taken a dislike to him and had targeted him several times already.

Why the hell would he give her a pleasant expression?

As for why she was targeting him, Sumer did not care to know, because no reason was needed to dislike someone.

In the world of One Piece, no reason was needed to kill someone either.

As it happened.

He was also extremely displeased with Manmayer Gunko.

For now, all he needed was to curry favor with Nerona Imu and let Nerona Imu see his value and loyalty.

As long as Nerona Imu was satisfied with him, he could swagger through Mary Geoise.

Still, he needed to maintain good relations with the Five Elders.

There were also the other members of God's Knights. If he encountered them in the future, as long as they were not idiots like Manmayer Gunko, he could greet them all with a smile.

That was why, from the beginning.

When he addressed Saint Saturn, and even Saint Mars now, he added "Mr." after their names.

"Fine."

Marcus Mars nodded somewhat coldly. His brows had remained furrowed, clearly still occupied with Sumer's recent revelations.

"Let's go together!"

Saint Saturn, Saint Warcury, Saint Nusjuro, and Saint Ju Peter nodded to Manmayer Gunko and followed them out of the flower chamber.

From their hurried footsteps, it was clear that they all had questions they wanted to ask Sumer.

"Damn it."

Behind them.

Manmayer Gunko could only glare viciously at Sumer's departing back until he and Saint Saturn's group vanished from sight.

Outside the flower chamber.

There was a corridor that stretched beyond sight, with neatly trimmed flowerbeds and lawns outside it.

The weather was excellent today.

The sun was bright, birds sang, and flowers gave off their fragrance.

A breeze occasionally brushed across their faces.

Yet Saint Saturn and the others were in exceptionally heavy moods. No one spoke, including Sumer himself.

He was considering the road ahead.

"Sumer... Saint—"

Suddenly.

Shepherd Ju Peter broke the oppressive silence. With a somewhat grave expression, he looked toward Sumer and spoke.

"Was Saturn really punished by Lord Imu during the Egghead arc?"

As soon as he finished speaking.

The other four, who had been lost in thought, all looked toward Sumer. Saint Saturn in particular felt strange inside, though he was still afraid.

As the public rulers of the World Government, their positions shaped their thinking. The Five Elders thought completely differently from Manmayer Gunko.

Even if all five of them looked down on Sumer, they would never display it openly and deliberately target him as Manmayer Gunko had.

Anyone with even a little sense could see that Lord Imu did not currently intend to deal with Sumer.

And once Sumer's words were proven true, Sumer's importance and status would become vastly different.

Leaving Lord Imu aside, the Five Elders also wanted to visit "Earth" and meet the author of the One Piece manga.

And then there was truly living.

"Yes, and he died horribly—"

Sumer nodded very seriously. He had originally wanted to say it was because Saint Saturn himself was unreliable at handling matters.

He had insisted on violating the iron rule that villains died from talking too much and being arrogantly overconfident.

But after thinking it over, Sumer decided to leave Saint Saturn some dignity.

Among the Five Elders, Saint Saturn was the most likely to betray Nerona Imu.

That was because Saint Saturn was a scientist—a deranged, extremely arrogant scientist with a severe case of occupational obsession.

And he had far too many ideas of his own.

"What about the four of us? How do we end up?"

Ethanbaron V. Nusjuro held a samurai sword in his arms. His face was covered in wrinkles, his head was bald, and with his hooked nose and thin brows, he looked exceptionally fierce.

He asked what Saint Mars, Saint Ju Peter, and Saint Warcury had all wanted to ask.

"None of you end well either—"

Sumer considered it for a moment before answering.

It was somewhat ambiguous.

With Saint Saturn as the precedent, even if the four of them were not dealt with by Nerona Imu later, they would sooner or later be defeated by the Straw Hat crew.

In any case, their endings were already set.

"You don't need to be so pessimistic. The future hasn't happened yet, has it?

"Besides, Lord Imu is so generous and magnanimous. As long as we handle things reliably, we won't be punished."

"After all, Lord Imu is a famously fair and discerning good boss among the many manga worlds—"

Sumer casually flattered him again. He could not be sure whether Nerona Imu was monitoring him.

Honestly.

Nerona Imu truly had nothing to criticize as a boss.

For example, the benefits were excellent: he granted his subordinates immortal bodies, tremendous power, teleportation magic circles, superior status, wealth, and glory.

There was room for error: in the original work, he had tolerated his subordinates' failures more than once.

When they failed to capture Luffy or secretly kept the robot, Nerona Imu had not immediately executed them at first. Instead, he warned them or personally intervened.

This was shown in the God Valley incident, the Egghead incident, and the Elbaf incident.

He also personally handled matters: at critical moments, he could personally step in to clean up the mess, even at the cost of paying some price.

Wasn't that the dependable safety net and cleanup work of a good boss?

Excellent benefits, high tolerance, strong backing, clear rewards and punishments—

If that was not a good boss, what was?

"Mr. Mars, are we flying there directly? Or taking a warship?"

Seeing the five deep in thought, Sumer began urging Saint Mars, because he could not wait to see this world for himself.

Besides.

The sooner he proved himself, the better. Only then could he solidify his position in Nerona Imu's heart and become safer at the same time.

"Let's fly!"

Saint Mars cast aside his thoughts. He also wanted to confirm as quickly as possible whether Sumer was deceiving them all.

Crackle—

Terrifying black lightning crackled around Saint Mars.

Amid a fierce gale and black flames, Saint Mars's form began to change.

A savage bird head with spikes and fangs, enormous brightly colored wings, bird claws gleaming with sharp cold light, a visually striking serpent body, and clouds of black flame...

Sumer's pupils widened. His black hair and T-shirt whipped wildly in the storm, and he could not stop himself from staggering several steps backward.

Although Marcus Mars did not release any aura, the natural pressure and terrifying appearance of Itsumade alone made Sumer's face turn pale.

It was a suppression originating from the level of life itself.

Reading manga and experiencing it firsthand were completely different things.

He was merely an ordinary person. Facing an incomparably vicious bird at close range, it was already brave enough that he had not wet his pants immediately.

Without a doubt.

Sumer's performance was utterly pathetic.

A complete clown.

All his earlier boasting had vanished, leaving only fear, unwillingness, and anger.