Pere pere pere... Pere pere pere...
The rhythmic ringing of a Den Den Mushi echoed through the chamber. Aeridar knit his brows slightly, reaching into his coat to pull out a compact transponder snail.
Kacha.
"Speak."
"Captain, our patrol ships spotted the Straw Hat Pirates' vessel twenty nautical miles off the coast of Micity Port, but they managed to slip away!" Arlan's clear voice came through the receiver.
Hearing the update, Robin quickly turned her head, her gaze fixed sharply on Aeridar.
"Slipped right past the patrol ships? What a bunch of useless grandstanders. Have the patrol general at Micity Port executed!" Aeridar's brow twitched. He cast a cold glance at Robin, his tone icy and unforgiving.
"Understood. However, judging by the timeline, the Straw Hats have likely already made landfall on some remote stretch of coastline," Arlan reported.
"Then have Angus Abel deploy men to scour the surrounding shores. At the same time, order the Kingdom's marine warships to tighten their patrol grid!" Aeridar commanded in a deep voice. "Furthermore, notify Millie to have the Internal Affairs Department assign extra operatives. We must root out the Straw Hats' whereabouts. I won't tolerate a fire in my own backyard just as we are about to clash with Big Mom!"
"Abel and Millie are already on it," Arlan replied, his tone tinged with anxiety. "But we still need to be fully prepared. If that Straw Hat brat and Law make it to Nakor, they could cause serious chaos right at our nerve center."
To Arlan, Monkey D. Luffy was a walking disaster. Wherever the boy went, utter devastation followed. Punk Hazard had been completely submerged, and Dressrosa left in absolute ruins. Arlan had no intention of letting a pack of brats turn his own home upside down.
"Rest easy. Enel is stationed at Nakor, where his mantra can monitor every conversation across the entire city. Millie's perception is also top-tier," Aeridar said confidently. "The moment the Straw Hats show their faces around Nakor, we'll snare them."
"My only concern is that they might avoid Nakor entirely and wage a guerrilla campaign deeper within our borders," Arlan countered grimly.
The Clifford Kingdom was vast. While it couldn't match Alabasta in pure landmass, it still covered an immense territory. On top of that, the interior housed crucial munitions factories and botanical gardens cultivation fields for refining raw medicinal ingredients. If the Straw Hat brat tore through those, the financial blow would be staggering.
"You make a valid point."
Aeridar frowned, realizing the validity of the threat. He pondered the situation for a long moment but couldn't immediately pinpoint a flawless countermeasure.
"How about this, Captain?"
Arlan offered an alternative. "Let Millie lead a specialized strike force, pulling a few of our brothers together into a mobile search squad. They can run irregular patrols across the major manufacturing plants and frontier towns. I doubt we'll find a better deterrent than that."
Among the four Elite Executives, Oliver had already departed alone for the Fernal Archipelago to safeguard the armaments factories there, ensuring the Big Mom Pirates couldn't send saboteurs to dismantle their infrastructure.
Zephyr was busy patrolling between Micity Port and Unzan Port, acting as the primary bulwark against a sudden amphibious assault by the Big Mom Pirates.
Enel and Aeridar were holding the line at Nakor, simultaneously pulling double duty as the kingdom's ultimate rapid-response force.
As for Arlan himself, his primary responsibility lay in overseeing Alvis Island, working closely with Dimitri to read the shifting tides of war and map out their grand strategy against Big Mom.
Thus, only Millie, whose raw combat prowess was comparatively modest but who possessed an unparalleled, wide-range sensory ability, was suited to spearhead this search detachment. So long as she was paired with one or two powerful cadres, they would effectively serve as irresistible bait to draw out the Straw Hat-Heart Alliance. Even if engaged, they wouldn't be taken down quickly, buying more than enough time to stall the intruders until Enel or Aeridar arrived to crush them.
"We'll proceed with that plan. Appoint Millie as the squad leader, with Smythe Betilla and Cavendish serving as her vice-commanders. Furthermore, have Gin assign five Dragonians to accompany them."
"As for the remaining slots, let Millie fill them out as she sees fit. Whether she draws personnel from the Elite Strike Team or the Internal Affairs Department is entirely up to her."
Aeridar knew that Millie was not a combat-oriented executive. Fearing she might face an unforeseen mishap, he deliberately structured an incredibly formidable vanguard around her.
Cavendish was a narcissistic psychopath with a dual personality; when his darker half emerged, his combat effectiveness effectively doubled.
Smythe Betilla, though not explicitly ranked among the Elite Executives, was undoubtedly one of the strongest individuals standing just beneath their tier. Over the years, she had clashed with Sweet Commander Smoothie dozens of times. The fierce rivalry between the two women invariably ended in a dead draw, which spoke volumes about her terrifying martial prowess.
When supplemented by Man-Demon Gin, whose strength had progressed by leaps and bounds over the past two years, and five bio-engineered Dragonian war-beasts, the squad possessed more than enough raw power to hold the line until Aeridar and Enel arrived.
"Understood. I will pass down the orders immediately."
Arlan voiced his absolute agreement with Aeridar's strategic placements. With a crisp kacha, he hung up the Den Den Mushi to coordinate the newly formed search squad.
Beside Aeridar, Robin's expression turned incredibly solemn. Hearing these precise, overlapping traps laid out for her captain filled her heart with a deep, unsettling dread.
"Captain Aeridar... we had an agreement."
Robin's voice lacked its usual confidence. Now that the Poneglyphs were fully translated, she secretly feared the pirate lord might renege on his word.
At the same time, a wave of self-reproach washed over her. She silently cursed her own indiscretion; she shouldn't have translated every single monument so readily, leaving herself with virtually no leverage left to negotiate. She had simply been so utterly enraptured by the sudden bounty of historical truths that she had lost herself in the moment.
Both Aeridar and Trafalgar Law understood Luffy's stubborn temperament perfectly. The Straw Hat captain would undoubtedly infiltrate the Clifford Kingdom to attempt a rescue, completely oblivious to the fact that Sanji had already been handed over to the Vinsmoke Family.
Knowing the sheer magnitude of the Chris Pirates' collective might, and wishing to secure Robin's long-term cooperation for future translations, Aeridar had previously struck a compromise with her.
Naturally, if Luffy somehow managed to break Robin out on his own prowess, Aeridar would consider it a fair loss. But in exchange for Robin deciphering the Poneglyphs with absolute honesty, Aeridar had promised that if the rescue inevitably collapsed, he would show mercy and spare the lives of the Straw Hat crew at the critical juncture.
Should that failure occur, it would also mark the moment Robin officially severed ties with the Straw Hats to join the ranks of the Chris Pirates.
"Rest easy. I'll still need your unique talents to translate any other Poneglyphs I happen to collect down the road," Aeridar said with a reassuring chuckle, casually slipping the transponder snail back into his coat pocket.
"Then I shall hold you to that," Robin murmured, a faint sigh of relief escaping her lips.
With the translation of the ancient texts concluded, Aeridar had no further reason to linger within the subterranean vault. While gazing upon mountains of glittering treasure was always a pleasant pastime, facing down a monolithic adversary like the Big Mom Pirates meant that now was not the time for idle self-indulgence.
Aeridar escorted Robin back through the several-hundred-meter-long tunnel, boarding the automated lift to ascend back to the surface. They left behind a silent corridor flanked by thousands of heavily armed animated guards and a labyrinth of deadly mechanical traps.
Suddenly, a faint, almost translucent face manifested upon the stone wall of the tunnel. It peered down at the patrolling constructs below, letting slip a whisper so quiet it barely disturbed the stale air.
"To think he added so many new traps and guards to the vault... It seems that bastard has extensively remodeled the place. This is going to be rather troublesome..."