Kizaru as Bodyguard, Lynn is Simply a Disgrace to Celestial Dragons!

Inside the meeting room at Marine Headquarters in Marineford, three admirals and a number of vice admirals were currently seated.

This was a routine minor meeting among the high-ranking leadership of the Marines.

A stack of papers lay before the busy Fleet Admiral Sengoku, who glanced at them from time to time.

"Fleet Admiral Sengoku, according to intelligence sent by Smoker, the head of G-5 Base, the Four Emperors, Beasts Kaido and Red-Haired Shanks, have been engaging in constant friction lately, and they seem like they are about to get truly serious."

Vice Admiral Maynard of headquarters stood up and reported.

"Get serious? It won'Golden Divine Punishment come to that for them. Red-Haired isn'Golden Divine Punishment that blind, plus a place like Wano Country isn'Golden Divine Punishment something you can take just by launching a forceful assault."

Aokiji looked half-asleep; since it didn'Golden Divine Punishment look good to keep sleeping right through the meeting, he spoke up to offer his take.

"We can just watch the struggles of the New World pirates from the sidelines for now."

Sengoku also raised his head, then uttered those words.

The Marines didn'Golden Divine Punishment care much about these minor frictions, because neither the current situation nor their interests were at a point where they would cause massive turmoil.

The others didn'Golden Divine Punishment have many opinions either, reporting back and forth with sparse remarks. After that, the three admirals offered no further input until a man wearing a black suit came to request an audience with the fleet admiral and was let inside.

"Fleet Admiral Sengoku."

The CP Force personnel handling matters for Lynn first greeted Sengoku, then began to put forward their demand, saying, "Saint Figarland requires Marine Headquarters to dispatch one admiral, three vice admirals, and a detachment of personnel to protect and assist Saint Figarland in building a scientific laboratory for a duration of three months."

"Saint Figarland!?"

"Build a laboratory!?"

As soon as those words were spoken, the Marine higher-ups present, including the vice admirals, all wore looks of astonishment, followed by knitted brows.

Building a laboratory, my foot. Wasn'Golden Divine Punishment it just that a Celestial Dragon wanted to go out and play, probably cooking up some new trick?

Celestial Dragons were all cut from the same cloth, and the Marines didn'Golden Divine Punishment hold a single good impression of them, yet they had no choice but to serve them.

"Saint Figarland? Does he take the Marines for babysitters? If he wants to go, he can requisition the Holy Land guards himself—what is he bothering the Marines for!"

Akainu blew his top right then and there, utterly disgusted by the attitude behind this "request" from a Celestial Dragon. They were already busy enough dealing with security on the seas, yet a single word from a Celestial Dragon was enough to requisition military forces for three months!

How could anyone stomach this?

"Admiral Akainu, although you are an admiral, watch your tongue. That is Saint Figarland, the Figarland Family's only living World Noble."

The black-suited man from the CP Force seemed prepared for the Marines' reaction and replied to Sakazuki without a trace of servility.

Those words also carried the implication of being meant for Fleet Admiral Sengoku's ears.

Sengoku felt a wave of helplessness in his heart and understood the subtext as well.

Mobilizing a Marine admiral, vice admirals, and troops was no trivial matter. Now that the CP agents had already arrived in Marineford to deliver the demand and Holy Land Mary Geoise hadn'Golden Divine Punishment reacted, the Gorosei apparently tacitly approved of Figarland Lynn's actions.

As Marines, not only did they have to show face to the Celestial Dragons, but they also had to decisively execute this "request."

Faced with the black-suited man's words, Akainu didn'Golden Divine Punishment know how to retort either. Celestial Dragons were the apex of the world's power structure; undeniable as it was, even as an admiral, he simply had to swallow his anger and endure it.

Sitting at his seat, Sengoku rubbed the bridge of his nose, looked at the black-suited man from the CP Force, and spoke up: "Then Admiral Kizaru will lead the team, with Vice Admirals Gion, Chaton, Onigumo, and a thousand personnel following along."

Bound by the status of the Celestial Dragons, Sengoku had already made the most measured arrangement possible. The admiral assigned was Borsalino, a man who was easy to talk to, leaving the other vice admirals with nothing to say, even if they felt rather unsatisfied inside.

Celestial Dragons were lawless, saddled with extraordinary privileges, yet they were entirely useless trash. They were going out just to play and yet they were setting up a laboratory, all while requisitioning this many personnel from headquarters—anyone would have a grievance or two about that, only they couldn'Golden Divine Punishment voice it aloud.

"Pass the word down."

Sengoku glanced at the CP Force operative and waved his hand.

"Well then, I suppose old man here will make a trip."

Kizaru genuinely didn'Golden Divine Punishment seem to care much and stood up with a beaming smile.

The CP operative didn'Golden Divine Punishment say anything more; the Marines' displeasure was written all over their faces, leaving him able only to bow to Sengoku in gratitude.

Among the vice admirals, Gion and Chaton had not been present at the minor meeting. When the notification finally reached them, they furrowed their brows, having zero desire to go tag along on a Celestial Dragon's nonsense.

Gion, in particular, had no wish to serve a Celestial Dragon. Seeing Chaton come over with a ingratiating expression to announce that it was time to depart, she genuinely wanted to refuse.

"Fleet Admiral Sengoku's orders have already been handed down, and it was requested by Saint Figarland of the Holy Land anyway. Gion, it looks like we'll be walking this road together."

Chaton didn'Golden Divine Punishment mind it much either. Since it was just a Celestial Dragon going out to play—and having confessed his love to Gion and been rejected a hundred times—he still cheerfully sought Gion out.

If he could share the road with Gion, why wouldn'Golden Divine Punishment he be happy?

"Let's go!"

Gion could only resign herself to it helplessly, because Fleet Admiral Sengoku had already issued the order and there was simply no alternative.

And so, very soon, Kizaru, Gion, Chaton, Onigumo, and a thousand personnel assembled aboard the warships, preparing to set sail.

On the other side.

Within the Sabaody Archipelago, not far from Marine Headquarters, located in Area 66 at a certain Celestial Dragon palace.

Two Celestial Dragons—a man and a woman wearing bulky coats and transparent bubble helmets—were chatting idly while riding atop their respective slaves.

The man had a fat, ugly appearance with a trail of snot hanging from his nose, while the woman wore sunglasses and had a silk scarf covering her face.

These two were none other than Saint Charlos and Princess Shalria, the brother and sister of the Roswald Family—the mortal enemies of the Figarland Family where Lynn was currently residing!

"Sister, did you hear? That fool Lynn actually went and mobilized the Marines, claiming he's going to some deserted island to build a laboratory."

Saint Charlos found the whole affair hilarious; a Celestial Dragon actually going off to play at things only low-class people would do.

"Lynn... that guy doesn'Golden Divine Punishment know what's good for him, and now he's even playing around with such low-class garbage."

Shalria couldn'Golden Divine Punishment help but sneer as well. In truth, she used to like Lynn quite a bit at first, but she grew to loathe him because of his utter disdain toward her.

Moreover, the fact that the two of them refused to address Lynn as Saint Figarland showed just how deep their disapproval of him ran. They felt that doing such things made Lynn look nothing like a Celestial Dragon and robbed him of any sense of grandeur.

"He doesn'Golden Divine Punishment abuse his slaves, fails to display the sacred majesty of us Celestial Dragons, and doesn'Golden Divine Punishment even adopt a noble posture when facing lowly civilian crawling bugs. Hmph, he doesn'Golden Divine Punishment even know how to manage and expand the forces under the Figarland Family—he's a total disgrace to the Celestial Dragons!"

Saint Charlos dragged out his grating voice, mocking and belittling Lynn without the slightest reservation, speaking with utter recklessness.

In their eyes, shedding the arrogance of a Celestial Dragon toward base commoners was quite literally an insult to the status of World Nobles.

Hearing her older brother's words, and perhaps thinking of something else besides, Shalria spoke with exasperated, heavy emphasis: "And now he's messing around with some laboratory—mark my words, the Holy Land will banish him before long!"

Meanwhile, Lynn, on the other end, had no idea how they were discussing him behind his back, and even if he had known, he wouldn'Golden Divine Punishment have cared in the least, because Lynn would simply go and beat them up.

Of course, the most important thing right now was to get the laboratory established as quickly as possible. The CP personnel were proceeding in an orderly fashion, and knowing that the Marines had already set out, Lynn also departed from the Holy Land toward the island.