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But...

"Have you made up your mind, Hades?" Bane asked, his voice heavy with concern.

"You don't have to rush. The Family can still protect you, long enough for you to grow stronger."

But Hades was resolute. He shook his head.

"No. If I join the Rocks Pirates, I can draw the World Government's attention away. Besides, the Rocks Pirates have grown into a thorn in its side. I can use their strength, too."

Hatred flashed in Hades's eyes as he spoke.

"Besides, I'm growing too slowly here. Only there can I become strong quickly."

"The World Government's reach doesn't extend that far. The Rocks Pirates won't disappear in the next ten years. There's no better place for me to find protection and grow stronger."

"They're a band of vicious pirates. There's no order there."

Bane knew what the Rocks Pirates were like. He couldn't understand why Hades was so confident.

Yet Hades's conclusion wasn't baseless. Bane had kept a close eye on the Rocks Pirates' rise and knew a great deal about them.

The Rocks Pirates were terrifying—a gathering of monsters, especially their leader, Rocks D. Zebek.

For now, at least, the Kronos Kingdom could not compare to the Rocks Pirates.

Of course, if the two clashed, the Kronos Kingdom had enough strength to inflict heavy losses on them.

The Rocks Pirates were at the height of their power. They had ruled the New World for over a decade.

The Marines, meanwhile, had remained quiet since that battle.

They had retreated step by step before the Rocks Pirates' expansion. Their influence in the New World kept shrinking, along with the territory where they could operate.

"Trust me. Father still has influence there, and Mr. Xebec will look out for me. Mother is there, too. Give me two years, and I'll have a firm foothold."

Hades had thought it through. This was his best choice.

But thinking about his situation still filled him with anger. He called it leaving of his own accord, but the truth was that circumstances had forced his hand.

Somehow, the World Government had learned of his existence. It had used its power to stir up a rebellion in the Kronos Kingdom, seeking once again to overthrow the Tartarus Royal Family.

Its real objective was simple: kill Hades.

He had already survived an assassination attempt a month earlier.

An agent from the World Government's Cipher Pol had passed through layer after layer of security to reach a Palace.

The agent had openly killed the guards and maids on duty, stormed the Palace, and risked death to behead "Hades."

But the victim had not been Hades. He had been a stand-in.

Bane had raised the stand-in specifically to protect Hades.

Hades usually stayed hidden and rarely went out. All information about him was tightly sealed.

Those measures had already concealed him well. The stand-in served as a second layer of protection.

Events had proved how wise Bane had been to prepare one.

The assassination also sounded an alarm among the Kronos Kingdom's senior officials.

They immediately sent the Royal Intelligence Bureau and the Netherworld to search the entire Royal Capital.

The Kronos Kingdom was a superpower with a population of eighty million. The inhabited areas of its island alone covered four hundred thousand square kilometers.

The island also contained eighty thousand square kilometers of virgin forest. In this world, it was enormous—practically a landmass.

Few kingdoms could match the Kronos Kingdom's long history. Its lineage stretched back over a thousand years.

Broad plains covered sixty percent of the island. Most of its hills and mountains lay in the virgin forest to the north and the Zhaoyao Mountains encircling the northeast.

The Kronos Kingdom was rich in resources and held the world's largest silver mine.

In truth, given the Kronos Kingdom's strength and deep reserves, the rebellion stirred up by the World Government was little more than a nuisance. The kingdom could crush it easily if it chose.

Moreover, over half the New World now belonged to the Rocks Pirates. The Kronos Kingdom lay in the northern New World, somewhat farther back, but still within the pirates' sphere of activity.

The trouble was that the rebellion had a steady stream of support. Outside, the Marines watched like hawks; they had even established a Marine Base specifically to keep the kingdom under surveillance.

The kingdom had power but could not use it—or, more precisely, it had to keep its true strength hidden.

If it acted openly, the Marines would intervene. They were the undisputed overlords of the seas.

Though the Kronos Kingdom was a world superpower with the strength to stand against the Marines, it would not choose to do so.

And the World Government still had forces working in the shadows. Even if the kingdom held out, it would be the one to suffer the losses.

But that was only the worst-case scenario. Neither the Marines nor the World Government dared enter a full-scale conflict with the Kronos Kingdom.

The World Government had already failed once. Besides, it and the Marines had the Rocks Pirates to contend with.

As Bane had said, they only needed to wait for Hades to grow stronger. The World Government, however, clearly lacked the patience.

It had set its sights on the Kronos Kingdom long ago.

After years of preparation, the World Government had incited a rebellion within the Kronos Kingdom more than thirty years earlier.

It intended to break the kingdom apart, cultivate a new kingdom loyal to the World Government, and plunge the island into war to weaken the Kronos Kingdom.

The Kronos Kingdom was one of the world's few superpowers, with immense military and economic strength. Yet it was not one of the World Government Member States.

It had repeatedly rejected the World Government's invitations, making it a grave threat in the World Government's eyes.

At its height, the rebellion had engulfed a full seventh of the Kronos Kingdom's territory.

The Tartarus Royal Family had responded swiftly, sending troops to suppress the rebellion and reclaim much of the land. Even so, large swaths remained in rebel hands.

Domestic factions had colluded with the World Government and openly betrayed the Kronos Kingdom. On the land they held, they established a new regime called the Chronos Kingdom, intending to replace it.

Everyone knew the Chronos Kingdom was merely a tool for the World Government to wear down the Kronos Kingdom.

With the World Government behind it, ships delivered an endless supply of arms and food to the Chronos Kingdom.

Transporting so much material through the New World's treacherous waters came at an enormous cost in labor, resources, and money.

The Kronos Kingdom was immensely strong. Against its military might, the Chronos Kingdom could barely hold on.