Hearing that, Ace nearly lost his composure again.
Good grief, Mr. Randall's barbs were sharp enough to strip a whole bamboo forest bare.
At this rate, Panda would starve to death.
Huh? What was Panda? Why would it starve to death?
Still, Ace had no idea whether Panda would actually starve.
But Shanks and the others in front of him looked ready to die of rage.
Shanks in particular looked positively green.
"Captain, don't listen to him!
You're our captain. Of course we'll follow your orders!"
"That's right, Captain. We made our own choices!
This has nothing to do with you!"
"Boss, we all did this willingly!"
Not one of them blamed Shanks.
Yet that very fact made genuine guilt well up in Shanks's heart.
Perhaps Randall was right, and everything was his fault?
He didn't regret attacking Ace.
Given another chance, he would have done the same thing.
But now, he regretted letting his arrogance keep him from calling the Five Elders earlier.
If he had called, the Five Elders certainly wouldn't have left them to their fate.
After all, to those at the top, stability on the seas mattered most.
Whether someone was guilty of a crime didn't matter.
So what if they had killed civilians? So what if they had robbed people?
Did civilians even count as people?
If the Five Elders gave the word, even Randall would have to obey.
Then their crewmates wouldn't have ended up in this state.
For a moment, regret filled Shanks's heart.
"Shanks!"
Benn Beckman noticed something was wrong with Shanks's state of mind and quickly shouted to snap him out of it.
"Boss, let's fight him to the death!"
"We're free pirates!"
"That's right, Boss! Take this sword!"
Someone thrust his sword into Shanks's hand.
It was merely an ordinary