Crawl Before My Justice!

"Row faster, you bunch of sissies! Why are they getting farther away the more we chase them?!"

John stood at the bow of the warship, the sea wind whipping his hair into a mess. Even in his high spirits, he did not forget to verbally bully his colleagues.

In truth, the distance from the pirate ship had not increased at all. He simply wanted to curse at them.

Back when he was with the Rocks Pirates, he had often been the one getting chased during pursuits. Now that the roles had reversed, the feeling was simply...

Awesome!

So this is what it feels like to be the overlord of the sea.

John looked at the pirate ship fleeing in panic ahead of them and felt his mind become incomparably relaxed.

He no longer needed to consider escape routes like he had as a pirate, or worry about what interceptions they might encounter along the way. All he had to do was lock onto the target ahead and chase it with his head down.

He could chase them until the end of time, to the ends of the earth!

"Zehahahaha!"

"Foolish evil, crawl before my justice!"

Behind him, Reed stared fixedly at John. The longer he looked, the more this guy seemed like... a pirate!

Setting aside that villainous laugh, there were plenty of other suspicious details.

He claimed to come from the Feros Kingdom, yet knew nothing about the feud between the Feloce people and the people of Shells Town. He even had only a vague understanding of the East Blue.

On top of that, he had an erratic temperament and acted without the slightest restraint...

"Fortunately, I searched through every bounty poster and didn't find anyone matching John."

Reed secretly breathed a sigh of relief. If he really recruited a pirate into the Marines, his career as the person responsible for screening recruits would be over.

At the bow, John heard Reed's quiet muttering clearly. His eyes narrowed as a crafty smile spread across his face.

Once news of Captain John's death spread throughout the world, the World Government would archive and seal away his information, while Marine Headquarters would cancel his bounty poster.

That was why he had insisted on waiting several months before joining the Marines: to give them time to revoke every wanted notice concerning him.

As long as they searched only the current bounty posters, they would never find him...

At sunset, a blood-red remnant of the sun hung over the sea.

The fleeing pirate ship ahead suddenly slowed down. On the unobstructed sea, it veered left and right, winding forward like a crawling snake.

"Could those pirates have been drinking while they were running away? Did they get drunk, making their rowing uncoordinated and causing them to drift left and right?"

"Damn it, they actually had the leisure to drink while we were chasing them? They don't take us seriously at all!"

"How arrogant!"

The Marines who had come up on deck to rest after changing shifts saw the pirates' strange behavior and came up with a relatively reasonable explanation.

Reed, the highest-ranking officer aboard, was not nearly so optimistic. He frowned as he thought it over.

Then, Reed's eyes suddenly widened.

"Stop! Don't row the outer oars! This is Soul-Loss Bay—there are reefs everywhere beneath us!"

The moment his words fell...

Boom—

As though it had struck some massive object beneath the water, the entire warship was jolted into the air. A heavy groan came from the keel beneath the hull.

Then, the warship, thrown half a meter into the air, slammed back into the sea and kicked up surging waves. The vessel rocked violently from side to side, leaving the Marines aboard stumbling and unable to keep their footing.

John's feet seemed glued to the deck as he steadily walked to the side of the ship and leaned out to look at the sea directly below.

From afar, the reflection of the crimson setting sun had obscured what lay beneath the surface. From this angle, however, he could vaguely make out enormous conical reefs standing on the seabed.

The pointed tips of those reefs lay half a meter beneath the surface. A warship with a one-meter draft was bound to strike them.

John smacked his lips, then turned and harshly berated the helmsman.

"Are you blind? You can't see all these reefs? Do you even know how to steer a ship? Don't tell me you got in through connections!"

"Huh?"

The helmsman furrowed his brows and stared at John with his mouth wide open, utterly bewildered.

"Isn't this supposed to be the navigator's responsibility? If they don't warn us in advance when we enter a reef field, how am I supposed to see what's under the water from where I'm standing?"

"Oh!"

John came to his senses, then swept his gaze across the Marines on deck.

"Where's the navigator? Get out here! Don't think you can escape responsibility by hiding and keeping quiet!"

Yet instead of following his gaze to look for the navigator, the Marines all stared intensely at John and shouted in unison.

"Aren't you the navigator?! You're the one who got in through connections!"

Standing to the side, Reed slapped a hand over his own face. Then he helplessly raised his head to the sky and let out a long sigh.

It was over. John was going to ruin him!

"Uh... hahaha!"

Faced with their furious glares, John scratched the back of his head and laughed awkwardly.

When he had been a pirate captain, all he needed to do was set a destination. He had never needed to worry about such trivial matters, so how could he have known there were so many twists and turns to it?

Even when traveling alone, he only needed to follow the guidance of a Log Pose and fly through the air. He never had to worry about running into reefs.

Then John's eyes shifted. He clasped his hands behind his back, put on a stern face, and pretended to be serious.

"What do you mean by looking at me like that? You think this was my fault? Haven't you made any mistakes yourselves?"

"Actually, I knew there were reefs here. I deliberately didn't warn you because I wanted to see whether you had the ability to identify and solve problems on your own."

"Now, it seems you've greatly disappointed me!"

"???!!!"

The Marines were full of question marks. They had never seen anyone so shameless.

So somehow, it was their fault instead?!

"Ahem!"

John cleared his throat with a fist before his mouth, raised his chin, and said with an understanding, tolerant expression:

"Forget it. My justice is a tolerant justice. It can forgive all your little mischief."

"Bring me a sword. I'll show you what they call the 'Sea-Slashing Hero'!"

"You know swordsmanship too?"

Reed's troubled eyes brightened. He handed over his treasured Great Grade Blade, one of the Twenty-One, Greedy Wolf.

He had once seen top experts smash through terrain obstacles with absolute power. If John truly knew swordsmanship, this would be the perfect chance for him to watch and learn.

"Of course I do. I'm a super great swordsman!"

"..."

Aboard the pirate ship

"Hahaha! Those stupid Marines hit the reefs!"

"No, the Marines are stuck after hitting the reefs. How are we supposed to lure them to Captain Morgan now?"

"How about... we stop and wait for them?"

For a moment, the pirates looked at one another, unable to make up their minds.

What if they stopped and entered the range of that Marine monster, only for him to blow up their pirate ship with one strike?

But if they did not stop, the Marines might keep bumping along at a snail's pace and lose them. How would they explain that to Captain Morgan?

Just as the pirates hesitated...

Clang—

The clash of metal rang through the sky. A pillar of purple light erupted from the Marine warship at their rear flank and swept past several meters off the pirate ship's starboard side.

Wherever the beam passed, the surrounding light dimmed, leaving only that startling streak of purple.

The sea exploded. Every pointed reef hidden beneath the surface was blasted into powder, vanishing into the vast ocean with the raging waves.