"Sigh, I'll tell Saint Rosse about this."
Otohime let out a sigh, silently noting this matter down.
She really didn't like Vanessa's actions, but she also had no position to say much more.
Vanessa only caused the deaths of those Marine families, but all the Fishman Island civilians who were dragged in by Dragon were saved by her.
If anything, she should actually be thanking Vanessa.
"Whatever."
Vanessa naturally didn't care. It was Rosse's order to begin with, why would she be afraid of him being told?
Lifting her head and glancing at Otohime, Vanessa suddenly said, "This time it was me who broke trust, I didn't watch Dragon properly. I'll personally sponsor the Fishman Kingdom with 100 billion Berries as compensation."
"Eh? That's too much," Otohime was stunned for a moment.
She truly didn't mean to blame Vanessa for this, just that she didn't like her style. She also had no intention of making her pay compensation.
Besides… that was 100 billion.
You don't know the value of money until you're the one running the household.
Before, she never had a concept of these things, but ever since founding the new Fishman Kingdom, she had come to deeply realize the importance of money.
100 billion Berries was enough for the Fishman Kingdom to eat their fill for ten years without doing a thing.
"I'm not short on money," Leaving these words behind, Vanessa directly walked away.
Berries were just numbers to her.
In her entire family, now only she was left.
That meant all of the Celestial Gold shares belonging to the Nerona family were hers alone.
On top of that, the treasury left behind by the Nerona family.
She couldn't possibly spend it all. Simply impossible.
In terms of wealth, she might actually be richer than Rosse, since she didn't have a force that needed funding.
Since Rosse needed money, she could just give her share.
As long as Rosse could kill that person, she could give him anything.
———
The news of Dragon setting fire in the Fishman Kingdom spread across the seas at an incredible speed.
At the same time, a shocking piece of news sent the entire sea into an uproar.
The Marine's strongest force, "Sengoku," together with Chief of Staff "Tsuru," Marine Hero "Garp," Marine rising star "Kuzan," and half of the Dove faction defected from the Marine.
And according to reliable sources, in order to ensure the safe evacuation of the defected Marine's families, Sengoku and the others allied with Dragon, caused a disturbance in the Fishman Kingdom, and killed the other Marine families who didn't leave.
According to rumors, the reason those people were burned to death by Dragon was mainly because they refused to leave with Sengoku and the others.
For a time, the seas trembled.
Not only was the Marine in an uproar, but pirates were watching for amusement, and even the NEO Marine (the new Marine Sengoku established) was shaken.
They had been willing to leave with Sengoku and Garp because they thought they were acting in justice, not doing something even more excessive than Rosse.
Luckily, after a month of effort, using a secret passage in the Red Line, they finally reached the New World and reunited with their families.
Moreover, Tsuru and Kuzan, both directly involved, stepped forward to explain. They had no cooperation with Dragon, it was just a coincidence.
Kuzan's prestige aside, Tsuru's standing within the NEO Marine was still very high. Quite a few Marines had only managed to escape danger thanks to her strategies.
If Dragon hadn't admitted it on the spot, and this matter hadn't already become widely known, Tsuru would definitely have adopted a gentler approach.
But after openly cutting ties, their cooperation with Dragon could only continue in secret. And it couldn't be discovered by certain people, otherwise the NEO Marine, just newly founded, would likely collapse instantly.
And this incident had an enormous impact on the NEO Marine.
Their original banner was that the Marine had rotted, that it no longer fought for justice, and they needed to gather more righteous men and women to join.
But after this incident, their reputation took a huge hit. The good name Sengoku and Garp had built up over the years was now under suspicion.
After the Holy Land incident, because a large number of pirates in the New World died, the information channels actually fell back into the hands of the World Government.
And this time it wasn't slander. It was truly something shady the NEO Marine had done.
Rescuing people was one thing, but killing their comrades' families?
If that blame stuck, then the NEO Marine was no different from pirates.
"That bastard Rosse is really sly!"
BANG!
The desk in the command room boomed under Garp's pounding fists.
It was only because he held back his strength that the desk wasn't smashed to pieces.
"What's done is done, nothing more to say. Tsuru, how's the situation inside NEO?", Sengoku shook his head, gaze falling on Tsuru.
Winners are kings, losers are bandits.
Every step they'd taken had been perfectly predicted, nothing more to say.
"On the surface it's stable, but how many will secretly contact the Marine side, that's hard to say," Tsuru frowned slightly. She had already done her utmost.
The NEO's morale was very low now, and she had no good solution.
Their strength had never matched the World Government's. People followed them out of pure passion and long-standing trust.
This incident might not shake their very foundation, but if their reputation completely rotted, plenty of people would surely harbor other thoughts.
"What about the financial situation?", Sengoku asked in a low voice.
Back when he was just an Admiral, all he needed to do was charge into battle.
But now as Marshal of the NEO Marine, the things he needed to consider were many.
Personnel deployment, choice of temporary bases, finances and food reserves, how to avoid the World Government, how to keep from being discovered. All of it needed thought.
Thankfully Tsuru was willing to follow them. Otherwise, with only Garp and Kuzan, two muscleheads, Sengoku might never have had the resolve to leave.
"Finances are enough for now. Counting the plunder we took from the East Blue branch when we left, plus our previous savings, we still have ten billion left," Tsuru explained.
"That money…", Mentioning that sum, Sengoku's face darkened again.
Each of the four seas' branches had no small military budget, and when they left, it just happened to be when this year's funds had arrived.
Sengoku hadn't planned on touching that money, since the optics weren't good. After all, they carried the name of a force for justice.
But Garp's son, Juste, not only carried that money off, but also brought along a large batch of Marines from the East Blue.
As for those people joining, Sengoku naturally welcomed them.
Their manpower was far too few.
But whether those people's addition was a good thing for the NEO Marine as a whole was another matter.
The elites had long been transferred to headquarters. Any Marines still left in the East Blue branch inevitably had their issues.
That batch couldn't get along with the elites they had brought out.
On top of that, the World Government loudly broadcast the issue of the East Blue's military funds.
They even specifically pointed out that because of the shortage in East Blue's military funds, and with many senior officers leaving, a flood of pirates had erupted in East Blue, plunging the people into misery.
With that news out, the NEO Marine's reputation sank yet another step.
But without the East Blue's military budget, they'd probably have been unable to afford food soon.
At that point, the NEO Marine would've been forced to start doing pirate work themselves.
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
patreon.com/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining Patreon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through Patreon.