The moment Rayleigh received the news and decided to come, he had already decided what he would do.
If the man who came this time had not been Randall, but some other vice admiral...
Would Rayleigh have called it a misunderstanding?
He would simply have beaten that vice admiral severely, then driven him away.
And the Navy would have had to thank him, a pirate, for sparing the man's life.
That was how this world worked. The strong reigned supreme, and the weak had no right to a voice.
But there were no ifs in this world.
Now, Rayleigh was the weaker party.
Randall was the one who had a voice.
Once you made a choice, you had to pay the price for it.
Rayleigh had never imagined Randall would be so savage, so "unreasonable."
"This..."
"Cut the crap, Rayleigh. Just answer me this.
If an ordinary vice admiral had come today instead of me, what would you have done?
And what about those petrified soldiers? What would you have done about them?
Do you think your pirate loyalty comes before everything else?"
Rayleigh fell silent at those words.
He could not answer.
Every word Randall spoke struck at something he had completely overlooked before.
Or rather, he had seen it, but chosen to turn a blind eye.
Just as Randall said, he truly believed this:
Pirate loyalty should come before everything else.
"When people try to reason with you, you draw your sword.
Then, when you can't win with your sword, you want to reason with them?
You think you get to have it both ways?
Save your breath, Rayleigh.
Let's see what you're made of!"
The instant his words fell, boundless Conqueror's Haki descended.
The sky immediately darkened.
At some point, black clouds had appeared, blanketing the entire