After two full days and nights of sailing, the air began to change.
The clean, salty spray of the North Blue was replaced by a faint metalic smell that stung the back of the throat.
Soon, they saw it.
Not an island, but a permanent, bruised-looking cloud of black and grey smog on the horizon, as if the sky itself had been permanently stained.
"Is this the Eryoku Kingdom?" Gion said, her voice muffled as she instinctively covered her nose and mouth with her sleeve.
"It's... so different from what I imagined."
Raleigh, standing at the prow, just nodded.
The scene before him was indeed extremely rare.
Even from miles away, the kingdom was shrouded in a thick, choking layer of black smoke.
He didn't know exactly what it was, but the first impression this place gave was poor.
"Sigh. What a headache," he muttered.
Raleigh wasn't here to clean up the World Government's mess.
He'd honestly be glad if an uprising did break out.
Even though an agreement had been "reached," he had no intention of actually stopping a rebellion.
He was just here to use the chaos as a smokescreen for his other plans.
But as they drew closer, he saw the port.
It was bustling.
Ships of all sizes were docked there—merchant ships, a few Marine warships, and... pirate ships.
Several of them of varying sizes, their tattered Jolly Rogers flapping brazenly in the filthy breeze.
Raleigh thought he was seeing things.
He rubbed his eyes and looked again.
Nope. Still there.
Pirate flags, clear as day, docked right next to Marine vessels.
Raleigh felt somewhat speechless.
Although there were numerous pirates in the North Blue, it was rare to see any this brazen, practically sharing a harbor with the Marines.
"It seems the local commander... doesn't quite agree with Vice Admiral Sakazuki's 'Absolute Justice' orders," Raleigh remarked half-jokingly.
Upon hearing this, Cleveland, who had been looking grim, stepped forward.
"Rear Admiral Raleigh, this isn't a place Vice Admiral Sakazuki can control."
"Oh?"
"This kingdom has always been under the World Government's direct jurisdiction. Its defenses, its commander... they're all drawn from the Grand Line, not the North Blue command. During Vice Admiral Sakazuki's tenure, he was never satisfied with this place, but there was nothing he could do. Headquarters gave him a direct order: do not interfere with anything here."
Raleigh gazed into the distance, his interest finally piqued.
"Hmm. This place seems rather interesting after all. Let's go. We'll discuss it further ashore..."
As the warship docked, the crew followed Raleigh's lead and disembarked onto the black, soot-covered stone of the pier.
The port was... empty.
No greeting party.
No harbor master.
No soldiers lining up to welcome their new commander.
Just the oppressive smog and the distant, rhythmic clang of machinery.
"Damn it," Cleveland grumbled, his hand on his sword. "Why is there no one here? Don't they even know we've arrived?"
Gion, standing nearby, also wore an uneasy expression, her own hand resting on Konpira's hilt.
"Even if an uprising had broken out in the kingdom... the port shouldn't be completely deserted. We're here to take command, after all."
"Don't rush..." Raleigh's voice calmly reached them.
The moment he had stepped onto the dock and seen no one, he had activated his new Devil Fruit ability.
He didn't just look or listen with his ears.
He felt.
Gentle breezes, swirling through the smoggy streets, into the base, through the taverns, carried all the distant information to his mind.
Whispers from nervous Marine soldiers in a barracks.
A loud, boisterous, arrogant voice from the commander's office.
The gruff, impatient muttering of a large man in a tavern.
He understood everything that had happened on the island in an instant. It was nothing more than the former base commander, unhappy about being replaced, conspiring with some pirates to set an ambush for him.
'Sigh. Why are there always such foolish, shortsighted, and hopelessly uncreative idiots everywhere?'
Raleigh felt bored.
Intensely bored.
Facing such low-level, predictable opponents, it was hard for him to muster any enthusiasm at all.
He just wanted this to end quickly so he could get back to slacking.
"Gion, Cleveland, wait on the warship for a while," he said, stretching his arms.
"I'll signal you when it's time to come."
"Yes, Rear Admiral Raleigh."
"Be careful, Raleigh."
....
While Raleigh was still speaking, several tall figures inside the Marines base were discussing among themselves.
"Rear Admiral Zakri, are you sure this is alright?" one of them, a captain, asked, his voice tinged with worry and unease.
"Don't worry!" a middle-aged man with a lecherous, piggy appearance and an extremely arrogant tone spoke resentfully.
"I've heard they haven't accomplished anything remarkable. Just captured a few small-time pirates and fought some local Mafia thugs."
"Especially their vice commander," Zakri sneered, "Christian Raleigh. I've looked into him—he has almost no military achievements to his name. Most of the credit goes to his subordinates."
The man addressed as Rear Admiral Zakri wore an expression of deep, personal dissatisfaction.
He was the son of a high-ranking World Government official.
But his low emotional intelligence and poor talent made him... a liability.
Fearing he would cause trouble in real government work, his family had decided to enlist him in the Marines.
However, he had no combat aptitude either.
His family pulled strings, spending years and vast resources to buy him the rank of Rear Admiral.
Because he was so laughably weak, his father intervened to secure him this post, guarding the Kingdom of Eryoku.
Here, he was the local tyrant, beyond the reach of the North Blue Marines and, thanks to the distance, even more so the Headquarters Marines.
His only task was to ensure the resource output of the kingdom, which the local guard and overseers managed themselves.
He hadn't done a day of real work in his life.
Excessive pampering had blinded him to his own staggering incompetence.
"Hmph. Once I deal with this foolhardy guy and hunt down those rebels to kill them, who would dare call me useless again?" Zakri was deeply resentful because the North Blue government officials didn't trust his abilities, instead turning to what he saw as the weak, backwater North Blue Marines.
This humiliation drove him to contact local pirate crews to eliminate Raleigh and his group.
In return, he had generously allowed the pirates to use the military port for their human trafficking operations in the future.
'If Raleigh's group truly has the strength to rival the Violent Bear Pirates,' Zakri schemed, 'I can just wait until both sides are weakened, then lead my forces to capture them all!'
By then, he'd see if this so-called Raleigh still had the face to remain as base commander.
'I'm truly a master strategist!' he thought, preening.
....
Raleigh strolled leisurely into the smog-filled town, his hands stuffed in his pockets.
He seemed completely unaware of the tense, silent atmosphere, whistling a quiet tune.
"Boss! He's here!" a pirate lackey burst into the town's largest tavern, rushing to a massive man who resembled a human-shaped beast.
"He's alone, and... and he looks completely unprepared."
"Hah. Finally," the burly man, Dominica, grumbled.
He put down his beer mug with a heavy thud and stood up, his chair scraping loudly.
"Customer..." the terrified tavern owner stammered, watching the pirate boss helplessly. "You... you haven't paid yet?"
The pirate boss turned, his eyes glaring at the owner with intense, bestial killing intent.
"I'm in a good mood today. Your life will cover the drink."
With that, he walked out of the tavern without looking back, leaving the owner to stare at the mess, bitterness welling in his heart.
"Damn pirates..."
After exiting the tavern, Dominica looked toward the island entrance with undisguised murderous intent.
"Hmph, this guy should've come sooner. Wasted my whole day, cost me plenty of drinking money."
He cracked his massive knuckles.
"I'll make sure that idiot Zakri gives me a bigger cut this time, or he'll pay for it."
"Hey! Where is he now?" he barked at his lackey.
"He's... he's almost here..." Before the pirate lackey could finish, Dominica pushed him aside.
He had already spotted him.
On the other side of the soot-covered road, a man in a crisp, white Marines uniform was walking toward them, wearing a lazy, almost bored, smile.