Chapter 118: The Foolish Zoro
"Father, I'll take it easy and go with Rengoku~!"
Charlos said smugly, trying to appear closer to Rengoku than his sister, Shalria.
Seeing the two together, Rosward smiled warmly and gave his son a proud thumbs-up.
"As expected of my beloved son, Charlos~ Take your time then~"
Shalria gave Rengoku one last wistful look before disembarking with her father.
Originally, two shrine maidens had been meant to accompany Charlos on leashes, but both had been reassigned to Rengoku — leaving the young Celestial Dragon surrounded only by four attendants and five guards as he stepped onto the island.
...
"Lord Charlos, there's… a problem with your mount."
The attendant's voice trembled slightly.
"What? What kind of problem?"
The Celestial Dragon frowned in annoyance.
"It, um… seems to be suffering from severe diarrhea. It can barely move."
"Diarrhea? Hmph! We didn't feed that beast anything strange!"
"Most likely it ate something off the ground, my lord…"
"Tch, tch, tch. This is why human slaves are useless… Maybe I should buy a fish-man or a giant this time instead~!"
Charlos grumbled, but since no one in their right mind would ride a mount that smelled of filth, he was forced to walk on his own two feet for once.
This, of course, had been Rengoku's doing.
...
The slaves whose explosive collars he had disabled were mostly strong men — former bounty hunters, laborers, and bodyguards.
While the Celestial Dragons' attendants were competent, they were nowhere near Cipher Pol caliber — and certainly no match for Rengoku.
The ten or so soldiers guarding the Rosward family were split between father and son; half had followed Charlos.
In other words, once chaos broke out, it would take only a spark for Rengoku's hidden plan to unfold — and for many slaves to reclaim their freedom.
Leaving the ship in the hands of the "sick" mount and its handlers, Rengoku quietly followed behind Charlos.
....
Everywhere they went, townsfolk knelt and lowered their heads.
To Charlos, this was the natural order — peasants bowing before the "descendants of the gods."
He picked his nose as he walked, oblivious to the disgust on every face around him.
Rengoku, on the other hand, spread his Observation Haki, scanning the area for trouble.
He wasn't concerned for the Celestial Dragon's safety — but rather for the potential appearance of reckless pirates.
And so far, surprisingly, things had gone smoothly.
By the time they reached Grove 24, Charlos hadn't tried to take any women as "concubines," and no one had dared to provoke him.
A miracle, really.
But then, of course — the inevitable happened.
....
A team of medics was rushing through the street, carrying a heavily wounded man on a stretcher.
The bloodied patient's moans caught Charlos's attention.
"Oooh! What's that guy?"
The young Celestial Dragon's eyes gleamed with arrogance as he pointed at the stretcher — completely unaware that his "curiosity" was about to ignite an infamous incident on the Sabaody Archipelago…
And standing right behind him, Rengoku's brows furrowed.
He could already sense the sharp, unrestrained aura of a certain swordsman nearby — one that screamed reckless danger.
Zoro.
The fool who never bowed to anyone.
"Hey! You there! Why aren't you kneeling?!"
Lord Charlos flew into a rage when he saw that not only were those lowly commoners refusing to kneel for a Celestial Dragon's procession, some of them were actually gathering and running about.
"S-s-sorry! There's a patient bleeding badly! Please, have mercy…!"
A man who looked like a medic explained the situation. Charlos strode over and inspected the injured man.
"Hm, the wound does look severe—well, in that case there's nothing to be done, hurry—"
Expecting mercy from a Celestial Dragon was foolish.
"Die!"
Charlos raised his foot as if to strike the patient, but Rengoku blocked him.
"Hm! That is indeed a serious injury! Sorry to delay—are these people pirates?"
When Rengoku asked, the doctor shook his head.
"No! He's just a young man who works here!"
"Understood. Then get him away from here, quickly!"
Rengoku stopped the Celestial Dragon's bullying and ushered the medical team away. The citizens who had been kneeling watched, unable to believe their eyes.
"Grrr! Rengoku! How dare you block my decision!"
Charlos grabbed Rengoku by the collar and exploded in anger. His shouting, however, made the onlookers do a double-take.
Rengoku—an unfamiliar name to some—was known by many who read the papers. He was Vice Admiral Rengoku, the famed "Flame Pillar" of the navy, the man closest to becoming the next Fleet Admiral, the one who once single-handedly stopped a mistakenly triggered Buster Call, the one who had wiped out some 300 Morgania pirate factions and eradicated nearly 400 criminal groups aside from pirates.
He was the person Impel Down employees dreaded working late shifts to avoid. With embargoes lifting, rumors also named him as the man who had captured Portgas D. Ace, Second Division Commander of Whitebeard's crew.
"No wonder that hair color stands out… it really is Vice Admiral Rengoku."
"Turns out the navy is the navy…"
"No one got hurt thanks to him…"
"Is he here to stop the Celestial Dragon's abuses?"
The citizens whispered. Charlos didn't care—he only wanted to punish that insolent navy officer. He would have shot on impulse again if not for one fact: the gun Charlos had drawn earlier had already been rendered useless by the one time he tried it. He drew it now and immediately regretted it.
Rengoku gently took the pistol Charlos had drawn and lowered it.
"Lord Charlos, wasting time here is pointless. You'd better hurry and follow Lord Rosward."
At the mention of his father's name, Charlos smacked his lips and sheathed the gun.
"Urgh! This is annoying!"
Charlos swung his arm in frustration. Someone stopped the flailing arm.
"Hey, that's dangerous! What are you doing in the street?"
"Huh? Why don't you kneel?"
"Kneel? Why should I kneel?"
Rengoku sighed at such a remark that crossed all bounds of common sense. He had no choice but to draw Shusui.
"Roronoa… you really are something."
Rengoku had a lot he wanted to tell that eccentric fellow, but he kept silent.
He respected Zoro as a swordsman—so much so that even the world's greatest swordsman, Dracule Mihawk, acknowledged him.
Rengoku had no intention of killing him, but he decided to put on a show—just enough of a display to stop the Celestial Dragon from escalating the matter further.
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