World Government · Room of Authority
The curtains hung half-drawn, slicing the sunlight into narrow beams that slanted across the long table symbolizing the world's highest authority.
The Five Elders sat quietly in their respective seats. No one spoke.
At that moment, a sheet of paper freshly delivered from Marine Headquarters lay in the center of the table.
The paper was utterly ordinary.
There were no long-winded formalities, not even the most basic honorifics.
There were only a few wildly scrawled words—[I'll be there tomorrow. Stop rushing me.]
"..."
The Room of Authority fell into dead silence.
Those words lay there in the middle of the table.
They were light and casual, yet felt like a hard slap across the Five Elders' faces.
The silence lasted several seconds. Then, in the next instant—
"Clang—!!!"
Veins bulged on Nusjuro Saint's forehead as he abruptly drew his sword!
A flash of blade light streaked forth!
"Boom!"
The entire long table, along with that sheet of paper, was split in two by a single slash!
The heavy table shattered with a crash, wood chips spraying everywhere.
"Ten years!"
Nusjuro Saint's voice was icy, his rage nearly impossible to suppress.
"He vanished for a full ten years!"
"And he's still this arrogant?!"
The blade trembled faintly in his hand. The others wore equally grim expressions.
Yet no one spoke, because they all understood perfectly well.
Anger was meaningless. Questions were meaningless too.
From the moment Rock returned, from the moment news of Hachinosu being wiped out in a single day spread across the seas—
Things had already slipped beyond the state of control they had hoped for.
Their inquiry was merely a stance they had to take.
Their demand for a report was likewise meant to preserve the Holy Land's nominal authority over the