Inside Sakazuki's office, the heavy curtains were half drawn, and a faint smell of tobacco lingered in the air.
Sunlight streamed through the window, casting a sharp streak of light across the dark wooden desk.
"Sit," Sakazuki said curtly. He walked straight to the desk, took a thick stack of documents from a drawer, and slapped them down.
Gern made himself comfortable on the sofa, while Lipo looked around curiously.
Eventually, she chose to stand behind Gern, resting her hands on his shoulders as her floppy ears swayed slightly.
"The Golden Lion's Third Division Commander, 'Death Knell' Davy, was killed." Sakazuki's voice remained low, as though he were stating an utterly ordinary fact.
"Oh? Killed?" Gern's expression did not change. He merely raised an eyebrow. "That's certainly... unfortunate."
Sakazuki's sharp gaze swept across Gern's face, with no particular suspicion behind it.
After all, Gern's involvement had already been covered up. Among the Navy's senior officers, only Zephyr and Kong knew.
"Unfortunate?" Sakazuki sneered. "For the Navy, this is good news.
"But the problem is..." He abruptly opened the documents and pushed them toward Gern.
"Now, forces under the Golden Lion are using this incident as a pretext to launch large-scale attacks on World Government Member States, and even ordinary islands and villages."
Gern lowered his head and glanced through the documents, densely packed with records of recent attacks.
Merchant ships plundered, villages burned, Navy patrol ships ambushed... every page was stained with blood.
"And that's not all," Sakazuki said, his voice growing colder.
"Plenty of pirate crews that had been lying low have also seized the opportunity to attack our patrol ships, and even openly provoke other Navy bases."
Gern tapped the documents lightly with his fingers, deep in thought.
He had already received a general overview of the intelligence