For a time, a long, almost frozen silence settled over the Fleet Admiral's Office.
Only the faint commands drifting in from the naval harbor outside the window and the soft tick, tick of the clock on the wall proved that time had not stopped.
A long while passed.
"You-bastard!!!"
A roar, suppressed to its limit before finally erupting, shattered the dead silence!
Sengoku, who had been sitting at the head of the room, suddenly sprang up like a tiger whose tail had been stepped on!
His towering body cleared the broad desk in an instant, moving so fast he left an afterimage behind!
"Hey! Gern! You bastard! You're not joking, are you?!!"
Sengoku seized Gern by the collar and hauled him straight out of the sofa!
Their faces were inches apart. Sengoku's usually wise, unfathomable eyes were now wide open, filled with excitement.
Shaking Gern violently, he all but shouted his questions.
"Gern, you bastard, do you know what the word 'Reverie' means?! Do you?!"
"If we Marines actually convene one, there really won't be any turning back!!!"
"This means completely and publicly nailing ourselves and the entire Navy
to the position of 'the heart of the New World' and 'the force overturning the old order'!
It means tearing apart even the last ambiguous buffer between us and the World Government!!"
Dizzy from the shaking, Gern flopped about like a rag doll in the wind. He weakly raised a hand, trying to stop Sengoku's "abuse," his voice coming in broken bursts.
"I know... I know... Sengoku... old man... could you... could you... stop shaking me first..."
He rolled his eyes and added:
"Otherwise... I... I haven't finished digesting... my lunch yet... I'm... I'm going to throw up..."
"..."
Sengoku froze, looking at Gern, who seemed about to fall apart from