Kaden's heart was drowning in misery, so bitter it could almost drip juice.
How could he be this unlucky? How could he possibly have run into this pack of death gods?
You're from the Grey Kingdom—why didn't you say so earlier?!
For the World Government these days, the topic most discussed, most troublesome, most headache-inducing was—Grey Kingdom, Grey Kingdom, Grey Kingdom!
They had destroyed the World Government's Buster Call.
They had the audacity to lead troops in a direct assault on Marineford itself, blowing up all three of the Navy Headquarters' massive armories.
They had defeated the Marine monster Vice Admiral and even fought the great Admiral Sengoku to a draw—forcing the Navy's own Fleet Admiral to personally step in.
But none of that was the most outrageous part.
The true shock was that the Grey Kingdom had dared, in front of over a dozen Celestial Dragons, to execute every single bodyguard and slave at their side—slaughtering them to the last man—and used that as a threat against both the World Government and the Five Elders.
And the Five Elders… had been forced to compromise.
Of course, the Celestial Dragons themselves had been a major factor—after all, those pampered nobles had been utterly terrified at the time, so frightened they nearly collapsed, and afterward pressured the Five Elders relentlessly.
But the other reason… was the raw, undeniable strength of the Grey Kingdom—strength enough to make even the World Government bow its head.
In the end, they had even extorted 30 billion Berries in "war reparations" from the World Government, dressing it up with nonsense about "communication" and "expressing goodwill." When had the World Government ever suffered such humiliation?
These events had set the Government's inner halls ablaze with argument. Many high-ranking officials were calling for immediate sanctions against the Grey Kingdom, but the Five Elders had temporarily suppressed those voices.
Never before had there been a pirate crew so brazen—and never before had one been so brazen and yet forced the World Government into submission, to the point they didn't even dare take special action against them.
The so-called "World Destroyer" Byrnndi World had once been a terror—he attacked ships belonging to the World Nobles. But when CP agents were dispatched, he was caught almost instantly.
Even the Pirate King himself, as powerful as he was, had been chased across the seas by the Government and the Marines, until finally he was captured and executed in Loguetown.
But with the Grey Kingdom… the Government simply had no way to sink its teeth in.
As someone who had come from the CP organization, Kaden knew the Grey Kingdom well.
Their people were now causing upheaval across all Four Seas, recruiting on a massive scale. Naturally, the Government had taken the opportunity to infiltrate spies into each of the Grey Kingdom's "divisions."
According to the spies' reports, the Grey Kingdom had seven main divisions. Three guarded Skypiea, while four operated throughout the Four Seas.
And yet… neither the Skypiea divisions nor the Four Seas divisions were actually the core of the Grey Kingdom.
That's not to say they were unimportant—the Grey Kingdom's main forces were concentrated in those divisions. But oddly, despite holding most of the crew's manpower, these divisions operated completely independently. Rosinante himself barely managed them; each division handled its own affairs.
By all logic, such a loose structure should have been easy for the World Government to exploit.
They could assassinate a few division captains and force the crews into betrayal.
Or they could bribe several captains, setting them against each other in bloody infighting.
But careful analysis revealed that success was impossible.
The reason? A unique system in the Grey Kingdom—
The "Merit System."
At first glance, there was nothing special about it—plenty of organizations had reward systems.
The key was this: every member who earned merit was offered something called the Healing Seal.
While Rosinante claimed he no longer used the Healing Seal as a threat, and that whether or not one received it was voluntary… in the Grey Kingdom, the Healing Seal was not just a lifesaving measure—it was a badge of loyalty.
Every single person who had earned merit would ask for it to be imprinted.
Division captains placed the highest trust in those who bore the Healing Seal. Anyone without it would never be truly accepted into the inner circle.
As a result, every capable member in each division bore the Healing Seal, making it extraordinarily difficult to turn them against the crew.
Even more, to prove he no longer used the seal as blackmail, Rosinante personally organized an annual event—bringing captains and merit-holders together for healing, releasing all the accumulated injuries from the past year, allowing them to fully recover.
This ensured that even if the Healing Seal were destroyed, their lives would not be in immediate danger.
But ironically… this only made them even less likely to betray him.
Because the ritual was a constant reminder—if they betrayed the crew, the annual release would end, and one day the Healing Seal would erupt on its own.
Still, the World Government didn't truly care about these pirates' lives. If they wanted to coerce betrayal, they had countless ways.
The real problem was… the Grey Kingdom's core wasn't in the divisions at all.
Of course, at the very top stood Captain Rosinante himself.
But besides him, there was one other critical force—Bins and his Bloodsworn Guard.
From what Kaden had learned, the Bloodsworn Guard was the true heart of the Grey Kingdom. Every single member was a pirate worth over 100 million Berries.
They protected their king, Rosinante.
They eliminated traitors.
They struck down the most dangerous enemies of the divisions.
As long as they existed, Rosinante could rebuild all the divisions from scratch if they were ever destroyed or turned traitor.
And with Skypiea under his control, manpower was never a problem.
Unless the Bloodsword Guard was removed, the Grey Kingdom could not be touched.
But the problem was—they and the divisions operated on completely separate systems. The Government had no way to reach them. On the contrary, the spies they sent into the divisions were often executed by the BloodSworn Guard.
From start to finish, the Bloodsword Guard had never even shown themselves. No one knew how they identified the Government's spies so easily.
At that moment, Kaden suddenly realized something.
Just earlier, Ryan had said they couldn't disturb "His Majesty's" afternoon nap.
And who was the Grey Kingdom's "His Majesty"?
None other than the man who had defeated Vice Admiral "Monster" Sakazuki, fought Admiral Sengoku to a standstill, and could only be brought down when Fleet Admiral Kong personally intervened—
The captain of the Grey Kingdom Pirates, Donquixote Rosinante.
The thought made cold sweat break out all over Kaden's face…