Kazu and the others ignored the king of Sade and the nobles. Ninety-nine percent of nobles who fought tooth and nail to welcome Celestial Dragons were no good.
The pirate ship sailed away from the scene in style, heading for the next island.
Within minutes, the World Government received news of Saint Nosman's death, shaking all of Mary Geoise.
The Five Elders convened an emergency meeting. Although they knew exactly what had happened, and that the stupid pig Norsman had attacked Her Kazi first.
They had never expected him to go this far. He had said anyone who provoked him would have to bear his wrath, and now he really had gone straight for the kill.
The World Government had to find a way to suppress this incident. All the nobles of the Sade Kingdom were witnesses, so they needed to send people to assassinate some of them.
It was not that the Five Elders did not want to wipe out the country, but doing so would be far too obvious, practically an admission of guilt.
The five old men ultimately agreed that the sacred image of the Celestial Dragons could not be tarnished. They had to smear Kazu and turn this incident into a different story.
The next day, fresh news spread across the seas.
The Celestial Dragon Saint Nosman had personally visited the Sade Kingdom to provide guidance, solely to improve the lives of its commoners.
Her Kazi, captain of the Blond Hair Pirates, had brutally attacked Saint Nosman along the way.
Fortunately, Saint Nosman was a descendant of the gods and, under their divine protection, had successfully returned to Mary Geoise.
It was just that Saint Nosman preferred a secluded life and disliked appearing in public.
As for the nobles and king of the Sade Kingdom, a Celestial Dragon had suffered a fright while visiting their country, so the deaths of a few people who had failed in their duties were understandable.
Kazu's bounty also increased to 2.077 billion Beli.
Carlmand's rose to 236 million Beli.
Behrens's rose to 81 million Beli.
Makino's rose to 9.9 million Beli.
Only days after their last increase, their bounties had risen again. Calling that speed a rocket ride would be no exaggeration. It rivaled the Straw Hat Pirates in the original story.
Kazu and the others had kept a much lower profile these past few days, continuing to sail along the Grand Line.
However, a request from Kazu and several mysterious photographs had already been slipped into the pouch on a News Coo's chest.
Kazu did not know how much nerve Morgans had at this point, or whether he had the courage to defy the World Government.
Meanwhile, Morgans had received Kazu's generous gift. On one side was the immense pressure from the World Government; on the other was the blossoming light of his dream.
"I'm the News King! Even the World Government probably can't find me when I'm constantly moving high up in the sky, right?"
With a mixture of wishful thinking and rebelliousness, Morgans personally took up his pen and wrote this news story that slapped the World Government in the face.
Only days after the World Government had used the channels under its control to refute the rumors, another world-shaking news story appeared before the public.
"Hahaha! That Morgans fellow has my approval."
The Blond Hair Pirates were resting in a town in the first half of the Grand Line. With outrageous extravagance, Kazu had rented an entire stretch of beach and was now sunbathing on a lounge chair.
The front-page headline featured a high-resolution photograph of Kazu destroying the Celestial Dragon's cruise ship. Beneath it was a caption declaring that Her Kazi kept his word, bringing up what he had said when he refused to become a Shichibukai.
Saint Nosman had initiated hostilities against the Blond Hair Pirates, becoming a test of whether Her Kazi truly had the guts.
The result had exceeded everyone's expectations: the Blond Hair Pirates had killed Saint Nosman without hesitation.
As for whether anyone would question Morgans's report.
Morgans said they could simply have Saint Nosman come out and take a few steps.
The Five Elders flew into a rage again and urgently contacted Morgans, issuing a stern warning and demanding that he refute the story as quickly as possible.
Since Morgans had already taken that step, he would not regret it. The Five Elders' attempts to hold him accountable would only drive him further into a frenzy.
If the Five Elders could have caught that damned bird, they would have personally taken up their blades, slaughtered Morgans, and stewed him for soup long ago.
The World Government could only issue a few toothless denials. After all, Saint Nosman really could not come out and take a few steps.
The Five Elders personally ordered the Navy to intensify its pursuit of the Blond Hair Pirates.
Even if they could not arrest them, they had to make life difficult for them.
At the same time, this was the World Government making its stance clear. Even if the commoners truly believed Saint Nosman was dead, they still had to see whether they could withstand such a frenzied pursuit by the Navy.
The Five Elders would never allow anyone else to get any ideas. Kazu had anticipated that they would go wild for a while, which was why he had ordered everyone to lie low here for some time.
After all, Carlmand, Behrens, and Makino were still a little too weak.
Kazu planned to train them for a while first, allowing them to grow stronger before they resumed their voyage.
This was also a matter of taking responsibility for their safety. After all, they were companions he had personally acknowledged.
Elsewhere, Carlmand and Behrens were still sparring. Makino was not idle either, doing basic exercises on her own.
Kazu's view was that 1511 was almost upon them, so there was no harm in waiting until after the New Year to set sail.
Several months passed in the blink of an eye, and the uproar over the Celestial Dragon's death subsided somewhat.
"Ding! Today's idling completed successfully. Year-end critical bonus conditions triggered." "Congratulations, host. You have received the physique reward-iron balloon."
The instant Kazu saw the reward, he thought he was hallucinating.
"What the fuck!"
"Is the year-end critical bonus really this good?"
After a brief moment of shock, Kazu decisively claimed the reward.
Anything from the system was guaranteed to be top quality. The iron balloon physique finished transforming his body in just one minute, and Kazu felt no pain or any other unusual sensations.
The second the transformation finished, Kazu felt that his strength had also increased considerably.
Having inherited Whitebeard's physique, Kazu could already be considered immensely strong.
Now, with the added boost from iron balloon, Kazu felt that if it came down to strength alone, there were probably very few people in the world who could contend with him.
Kazu had always thought iron balloon simply maxed out defense. He had not expected its boost to strength to be so terrifying as well.
Then Kazu took Muramasa out of his Independent Space, coated it in Armament Haki, and slashed his arm without hesitation.
Screech!
Muramasa made intimate contact with Kazu's skin, throwing off showers of sparks.
Kazu did feel a tiny bit of pain, but there was no wound, only a white mark on his arm that disappeared on its own shortly afterward.
"This physique really is overpowered."
Although Kazu was delighted, there was a technique in this world called Internal Destruction, and there were even other bizarre Devil Fruits that could damage the inside of a person's body, so he still could not afford to be too careless.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Charlotte Linlin is called Big Mom. People aren't going to start calling me Big Daddy someday, are they?"
The more Kazu thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. His own father, Whitebeard, was famous for taking in sons and loved having people call him Pops.
Combining Big Mom with Pops would make Big Daddy, wouldn't it?
However, Kazu did not like taking in adopted sons. He would much rather find a group of beautiful women first and have them bear him biological sons.