For a moment, a clamor broke out.
This time, no matter how the soldiers banged their weapons, it did no good.
With death hanging over them, who would listen?
"Everyone, settle down and hear me out! The pirates aren't here yet! And I have a plan!"
At that, everyone quieted out of respect for King Riku.
King Riku drew a breath and said:
"Those pirates said that as long as we give them ten billion Beli, they'll abandon their attack on Dressrosa!
But right now, the treasury holds less than five billion Beli.
That's why I gathered everyone here today—to ask you all to contribute some money.
Then we'll be safe!"
Everyone gasped at his words.
"M-my goodness, I've never seen that much money in my life! Ten billion!"
"How are we supposed to raise that? Five billion Beli—can we even scrape together that much?"
"We have about a hundred thousand people, right? So that's fifty thousand Beli each? That's not much."
"F-fifty thousand Beli? You call that not much? That's enough to cover my family's expenses for a year!"
"G-good heavens, how could we possibly afford that? That'll kill us!"
"We can't afford it, King Riku!"
The voices grew louder and louder until everyone was shouting.
Watching the chaos and hearing their cries, King Riku grew frantic.
He knew this was asking too much, but there was no other choice. To avoid any deaths, the people would simply have to suffer a little.
After all, having no money only meant going hungry. Surely they wouldn't starve to death.
He was about to continue persuading them when the same sensation of losing control of his body that he had experienced before Doflamingo returned.
King Riku's eyes widened, and he tried to shout.
But he could no longer open his mouth.