Watching Roger's Execution at the Start of My Life in One Piece

"..."

Fresh from training, Atlas radiated waves of heat. At the doorway, Majors felt a fierce gust strike him, followed by an overwhelming pressure that left him dazed for an instant. He stood frozen, failing to notice that Atlas was about to leave.

"Come on! What are you standing there for?"

Atlas noticed Majors's reaction, turned back, and barked at him with a displeased frown.

"Huh? Oh! Yes, ma'am!"

Sabaody Archipelago's Lawless Zone.

The stretch of coast was almost deserted. Lauren Frost had stumbled upon it by chance. Docking there was troublesome, but with so much profit at stake, that hardly mattered.

"Phew. Almost there. The Marines probably haven't found us. Looks like that devil hasn't noticed."

Lauren Frost let out a long sigh of relief. His luck seemed good today, and the slaves aboard this ship should satisfy the Celestial Dragons' demands for the time being.

Especially since... there was an exceptional mermaid slave aboard. The Celestial Dragons were sure to love her.

Lauren Frost could already picture the Celestial Dragons taking notice of him and lifting him to wealth and power. He had forgotten how cautiously he had behaved just moments ago.

What an ugly face greed gave him!

Swift and Ruthless

"Move, move! Get going! Vice Admiral Atlas gave the order. We're going to teach those bastards a hard lesson, so don't let her down!"

Atlas watched Majors direct the Marines in orderly fashion nearby and nodded with some satisfaction.

As far as she was concerned, Majors had a knack for command.

Still, Atlas wanted a female Marine as her adjutant. She would be easier on the eyes, after all.

As the saying went, when there was work to do, the secretary did it. When there wasn't...

Perhaps she should discuss it with Vice Admiral Tsuru. After all, most of the women in Marine Headquarters served aboard Tsuru's ship. It was only a passing thought, though. An adjutant did not need to be particularly strong, just capable of handling administrative work. Atlas had no desire to be buried in tedious affairs all day like Sengoku.

Before long, while Atlas was lost in her daydreams, Majors led the Marines toward Lauren Frost's location, following the intelligence they had gathered.

"Hey, Lauren Frost! What the hell were you thinking, picking this godforsaken place for the handoff?"

The slave ship was not particularly large. A burly man stood at its bow, looking outrageously arrogant as he openly challenged Lauren Frost, the man in charge of the auction house.

"Watch your mouth, Alex. I'm your boss!"

Lauren Frost sounded annoyed, with perhaps a hint of smugness.

To Lauren Frost, Alex's attitude was simply jealousy. The two of them had once held equal rank at the auction house. Then the old man above them had suddenly dropped dead while Alex happened to be away, and Lauren Frost had somehow emerged as the winner.

Lucky bastard...

Alex resented Lauren Frost's good fortune, but he did not press the quarrel. They were all there to make money, after all. Who would pick a fight with that?

"Heh... Let's just get this done quickly. A formidable Marine arrived in Sabaody while you were away."

"A Marine?"

Alex scoffed. Lauren Frost was as timid as ever. With the Celestial Dragons backing them, how could mere World Government attack dogs possibly touch them?

You've really gone soft, Lauren Frost.

Alex looked at Lauren Frost with even greater contempt.

"Hey! What's that look sup—"

"A slave ship? You've got some nerve, doing this so openly right under Vice Admiral Atlas's nose!"

Before Lauren Frost could finish, Majors's voice cut straight through their conversation.

"Marines? But I thought..."

The sudden interruption threw Lauren Frost into a panic. He could barely think.

"You mean these lookouts?"

Thud!

As if answering Lauren Frost, several large men in black suits dropped from above. Judging by their condition, their chances of survival were slim to none.

"Wh—!? Vice Admiral Atlas!?"

Lauren Frost instinctively looked up and recoiled in horror. He had never expected the devil Marine to come in person. His face turned ashen.

He knew he would not survive today. He had witnessed the slaughter that day, when nearly the entire Lawless Zone had been drenched in blood. From that day on, this woman had been the very image of a devil.

Atlas had not come just for Lauren Frost. He was not important enough for that. This was only the beginning, and she still had to oversee the operation that followed.

"Hmph. A Marine Vice Admiral? We have the Celestial Dragons behind us! The Celestial Dragons can even order Marine Admirals around!"

Unfazed, Alex stared up at Atlas with a challenging look, apparently certain that the Marine Vice Admiral would not dare touch him.

What an idiot...

Never before had Lauren Frost thought his longtime colleague was quite so stupid.

Boom!

Atlas narrowed her eyes at Alex's challenge. Without a word, she engulfed the man who had been boasting a moment earlier in a blast of fire.

The force tore Alex's body apart like cloth. Blood and flesh sprayed through the air, only to evaporate in the raging flames. A faint smell of roasted meat lingered.

"Gulp."

Lauren Frost forced down a mouthful of saliva. The smell of burning filled his nostrils, and every hair on his body stood on end. Death had never felt so close.

"Kill him. Kill everyone who came with him, too. They're worse than pirates."

Atlas glanced down at the trembling Lauren Frost with disgust and curled her lip.

"And see that the people aboard the slave ship are taken care of. Find a way to send them home. As for those with nowhere to go, ask whether they want to join the Marines!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

At the order, the Marines surged toward the slave ship's hired muscle like a pack of wolves.

Atlas was not worried in the slightest. The Marines under her had undergone rigorous training and survived bloody battles. Their combat skills were beyond doubt.

Besides, their opponents were merely thugs employed by an auction house. This was hardly an even fight.

The battle swept through like an autumn wind scattering leaves. It ended almost as suddenly as it began.

"A-are we saved?"

"I think so... I'm sure I heard someone say 'Marines.'"

"Don't be naive. The Marines are in league with those people. Why would they save us?"

The captives in the hold could hardly believe it. They had not yet been "broken," and their longing for freedom burned fiercely enough to consume anything.

Soon, the captives' chatter abruptly died away.

A group of Marines had appeared before them in neat ranks.

Some even raised bruised hands to rub their eyes, as though the sight before them could only be a dream.

"Don't just stand there. Come out and register with us."

Seeing that no one had left the opened cages, the Marine in charge finally called out to them.

"Huh? Y-yes!"

The captives came to their senses and rushed forward all at once, filling the hold with clamor.

"Quiet! One at a time. There's no need to rush."

Unsurprised, the lead Marine calmly directed them out of the cages and onto the deck in an orderly line.

Leave No Roots Behind

"One, two, three... Hm? There's a mermaid, too?"

Majors, who was counting and registering the people aboard the slave ship, looked startled. It was not that he had never seen a mermaid. But with relations between the World Government and Fish-Man Island so strained, he was unsure how to handle her.

"Vice Admiral Atlas, we found a mermaid aboard the slave ship. What should we do with her?"

When in doubt, ask the person in charge.

Majors followed that fine tradition and went straight to Atlas.

"A mermaid?"

Atlas looked toward Trika, who stood out among the crowd.

She looked delicate and frightened, with smooth skin and long blue hair falling over her shoulders. Her upper body was indistinguishable from a human woman's, and two scraps of cloth barely covered her full breasts. Below her flat stomach was a tail covered in black-and-white scales. The contrast gave her an unusual allure.

She was a Striped Beakfish Mermaid!

Atlas had heard that a mermaid's tail turned into legs after she turned thirty...

Atlas rubbed her chin, her thoughts wandering.

"..."

Trika seemed to notice Atlas studying her, and fear crept into her eyes. Queen Otohime's teachings had led her to believe humans were kind and good.

But her experiences since sneaking away had taught her otherwise. Humans had never regarded mermaids or Fish-Men as their equals. In human eyes, they were merchandise, no different from fish.

The sunlight was warm, but it could not warm Trika's heart.

"Vice Admiral? Vice Admiral? What are you thinking about?"

When Atlas gave no answer, Majors could not help prompting her.

"Huh? Oh. What else? If she wants to go back to Fish-Man Island, send her home."

"But what about the World Government...?"

Majors hesitated. Fisher Tiger had attacked Mary Geoise, after all. It was as though he had ground the World Government's reputation into the dirt.

"Huh? What do I care about the World Government? Whatever happens, it won't land on my desk. Sengoku can have the headache."

Atlas was openly dumping the problem on Sengoku. He had given her his firm assurance before she left.

"Too many faces to watch! Beware of pirates!"

Sabaody was far from quiet at night, especially for the so-called slave owners.

Marines patrolled Zones 1 through 29, searching almost every home. Their stated reason was to prevent vicious pirates from hiding among ordinary citizens and posing a grave threat to everyone's lives and property.

What? You refused? Then the Marines had reason to suspect you of ties to pirates or human traffickers. Resist arrest, and they would have no choice but to shoot you on the spot.

Most ordinary citizens naturally applauded the Marines' actions.

Zone 1.

Sabaody's largest human auction house stood there. Even the Celestial Dragons visited from time to time.

That auction house harbored some of Sabaody's filthiest, darkest crimes.

Now, however, ranks of Marines surrounded it. At their head stood Colonel Majors and... Kyros.

As a trusted man Atlas had personally recruited, Kyros naturally served as one of the operation's main fighters. He stood to earn some credit from it, too. Oh, and he was a sergeant now.

Atlas had brought more than fifteen hundred Marines from headquarters, and the Sabaody garrison had roughly another thousand. She had assigned about eight hundred to Auction House No. 1 alone. She intended to wipe the human trade out of Sabaody in one decisive operation.

"Hey! What do you Marines think you're doing? The Celestial Dragons back this auction house!"

The staff inside had heard the commotion. They were terrified, but the Celestial Dragons' backing gave one of them enough courage to shout at the Marines.

"Nothing complicated. Vice Admiral Atlas has ordered that human auctions are no longer permitted in Sabaody!"

"You have one minute. Everyone inside comes out, right now. Otherwise..."

For some reason, Atlas's stern face flashed through Majors's mind. After a pause, he finished, "We kill you where you stand!"

"You—you aren't afraid of offending the Celestial Dragons?"