The Medicine Takes Effect, Pirates Attack

"This weather is awful. Even drying clothes is a hassle. I hate days with a west wind," said a yawning soldier standing guard in the fortress watchtower.

Rain had begun to fall outside. This place was close to the Red Line, where moisture drifting in from the West Blue was carried by the sea breeze and met the Red Line, which was like an impassable chasm. Unable to cross it, the moisture could only gather into clouds before the Red Line. Whenever a west wind blew here, it brought rain to the fortress.

Today's wind happened to be westerly, and rain had started falling. The soldiers were already used to this sort of weather, but the gray, gloomy sky made it impossible to feel energetic.

"Yeah, this weather's the worst. Oh, and today's curry rice tasted a little off," another soldier said.

"Something probably went wrong in the kitchen again. Those old fools, honestly."

"Huh? Is there something over there?"

"What?"

Hearing that, the soldier picked up his telescope and looked over. When he saw the pirate ship entering his view, he froze for a moment.

He initially thought a pirate crew was headed for the Grand Line and paid it no mind. But as he moved the telescope, he saw another pirate ship appear behind it, followed by ship after ship emerging across the sea.

"No... no way. Did I see that wrong?" The soldier lowered the telescope, his eyes wide, sweat pouring down his face as terror filled his expression.

"Let me see." The other soldier snatched it away. After one glance, he immediately reached out and pulled down a lever.

"Woooooo..."

The fortress alarm suddenly rang out. The Marines inside the fortress all stopped with their spoons halfway through their meals and looked up, momentarily stunned. Then they sprang into action. They trained every day, and at the sound of the alarm, they reflexively set aside their half-finished plates, grabbed their weapons, and returned to their posts.

"What happened?"

The fortress commander, a colonel, immediately questioned the soldiers after hearing the alarm.

"Reporting, Colonel! Pirates! Pirates have appeared!" A soldier pushed open the door and saluted.

"What?" The colonel rose from his chair with both hands braced on the desk, his face filled with shock.

"Pirates have appeared? How many?" asked a man in a Marine coat beside him. His scar-covered face carried an indescribable authority, and the soldier instinctively took a step back upon meeting his gaze.

"The exact number is unclear at the moment, but there are at least dozens of pirate ships. They all belong to fairly famous pirate crews from the West Blue," the soldier said.

"Vice Admiral Doberman." The colonel looked toward the scar-faced Vice Admiral Doberman.

"Fools courting death." Doberman immediately understood the pirates' objective and sneered.

"Report!" At that moment, a junior officer stood at the doorway, saluting. He was panting heavily, and his face was pale.

"What is it?" Doberman frowned. This was one of the soldiers he had brought with him, and something about his condition was clearly wrong.

"Vice Admiral, all of our soldiers have diarrhea. The ship's doctor just said that someone tampered with our food," the junior officer said through gritted teeth, fighting the churn in his stomach.

"What?" Doberman shot to his feet.

"Grrrrowl!"

The stomachs of everyone in the office rumbled at once. Doberman was fine, but the soldier who had entered earlier and the fortress colonel could no longer endure it. Their stomachs churned violently, and both clutched their bellies.

"Damn it! Get the ship's doctors to prepare medicine immediately! This was planned in advance. Was their target the Heavenly Tribute?" Doberman roared, his eyes wide with fury.

In an instant, the entire fortress was filled with a foul stench. Some soldiers could no longer hold it in, and filth spilled from them as the reek spread into every corner of the fortress.

"Woooooo!!!"

The alarm continued to blare as the pirate ships drew closer and closer to the fortress. The people aboard them could now be seen clearly.

"They're all famous pirates from the West Blue. Damn it, those despicable bastards actually drugged us with laxatives!" A soldier in the watchtower clutched his stomach and crouched on the ground in agony.

"This medicine can suppress it, but we don't have much. We need to get more medicine from the fortress pharmacy," said the military doctor from Marine Headquarters. He had already taken some medicine himself and handed the remaining doses to the CP members standing before him with their stomachs clenched.

To preserve their combat strength, they had to give the medicine to the combat personnel first. However, the medicine stored on the warships was insufficient, so the ship's doctors needed to obtain more antidiarrheal medicine from the base fortress's pharmacy.

"I've contacted Vice Admiral Doberman. Someone will take you to the pharmacy shortly. Prepare the medicine as quickly as possible." The CP member felt somewhat better after taking the medicine. Fortunately, it was not a particularly potent laxative, or they truly might have ruined everything.

Doberman himself was not worried. A little laxative was no problem for him. Under the control of Life Return, he simply expelled it with a fart. The smell was a little unpleasant, that was all.

"We've contacted headquarters. They even used signal-jamming equipment. The fortress has been infiltrated as well, so this was clearly premeditated. We can't maneuver well while trapped inside the fortress. All fleets, turn around. Point your cannons outward." Doberman, with his vast combat experience, took command. With a Vice Admiral from Marine Headquarters giving orders, no one in the fortress dared say anything—especially Doberman, who was known for his iron-blooded nature. Anyone who disobeyed could wait for a bullet.

"It's finally begun. Shame the medicine wasn't stronger." Rogge had already changed clothes and disguised himself as a Marine soldier, blending into the ranks.

It would have been difficult for him to slip in before, but with everything in chaos now, blending in was no challenge. There were soldiers from Marine Headquarters and soldiers from the fortress, and nobody on the ships knew everyone else's uniforms. Who would have imagined that Rogge was a pirate?

However, Rogge had underestimated the medical standards of this world. He had not expected antidiarrheal medicine to be prepared so quickly. The officer-level combat forces had suffered no losses, and the coming battle would not be easy.

Rogge had initially planned to sneak aboard one of the warships, but the soldiers aboard were clearly all from Marine Headquarters and would not let him board. Left with no choice, Rogge boarded a fortress warship at the harbor.

The pirate ships were now less than two hundred meters from the harbor. There were no fewer than eighty-six pirate ships, belonging to sixty-three pirate crews. Some crews had so many men that they possessed as many as ten ships, much like Krieg in the East Blue, who commanded a vast number of subordinates.

"That's far too many." The fortress colonel's legs went weak. Under normal circumstances, if he encountered something like this, he would probably abandon the island and flee without hesitation.

Doberman merely glanced at him before turning his eyes directly toward the pirate ships, his expression unchanged.

"They're nothing but a rabble. They're within two hundred meters. Warships, open fire," Doberman ordered expressionlessly.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Every warship and every cannon emplacement in the fortress opened fire. Countless cannonballs were launched, while the cannons on the front-row pirate ships roared in response, blasting black cannonballs toward them.

A chaotic battle began.