"Very well, I accept. But you must report this to the Five Elders—I cannot undertake missions without authorization."
Goda Steele agreed.
Such minor matters were routine tasks in his daily work.
Just investigating the massacre of some small kingdom's nobility by pirates?
As for whether the Marines were colluding with pirates...
Goda Steele felt nothing about it.
He was CP9, not intelligence or the Five Elders—independent thinking wasn't required.
The Five Elders hadn't cultivated them to be independently thinking weapons anyway, so they only needed to complete missions.
It didn't matter how far this investigation went.
Though in his heart, he never took the Marines of the Four Seas seriously.
After all, in the Grand Line, he was nothing more than a highly effective blade wielded by the World Government.
In his view, the strength of the Four Seas' marines could be crushed with a mere flick of his hand.
"This time, I won't provide you with any additional assistance for your mission. It's just a minor task anyway."
"However, it would be best if you could find some evidence—even fabricated—linking the Marines to this matter."
Paddy spoke with a glint of sharpness flashing behind his refined glasses.
The Marines's handling of the God Valley incident had been highly unsatisfactory, greatly disrupting the entertainment activities of the Celestial Dragons.
Ever since that incident, the Celestial Dragons had been looking for ways to cause trouble for the Marines.
Even if he didn't make this decision, Paddy believed his political rivals would make the same choice.
So he proceeded without a hint of guilt.
After all, when working for the World Government, the most important thing was to curry favor with the Five Elders.
"If Goda succeeds in this mission, then I will be the one to hand a blade directly to the Five Elders."
"Regardless of the Marines's ultimate fate, at least my standing in the eyes of the Five Elders will improve."
––––––––––––-
Marines Headquarters, Marineford, Fleet Admiral's Office.
"Bastard! Who the hell did this? Find out who the commander of Branch 127 is!"
An irritated Sengoku slammed his fist on the table while screaming.
"This guy has terrible timing, handing them a blade right at this critical moment. You should know that after the God Valley incident, the Celestial Dragons already hold some resentment toward the Marines."
"Now they're looking for ways to cut our military funding. If we're actually found to have done something shady in this matter, the Celestial Dragons will definitely freeze our funds."
At this point, Sengoku was far from possessing the composure he would develop after decades as Fleet Admiral.
Currently, he was known by the familiar title of Admiral Sengoku the Buddha, not yet the strategic mastermind he would later become.
Fleet Admiral Kong rapped on the table, signaling for Sengoku to calm down.
"After this incident occurred, I contacted the people at Branch 127. They confirmed they had no contact with pirates regarding this matter."
"However, they did make mistakes—specifically, they failed to provide timely assistance when the Mad Blade Pirates massacred the nobles."
"I looked into their branch's situation. It appears that before this incident, a female marine from their branch visited Povo Village and encountered Raleigh, who was on his way to assume his new post in the North Blue."
Garp chose an inopportune moment to interject:
"Fleet Admiral Kong, based on the intelligence we received from the East Blue, isn't it a good thing that nobles who treat civilians as playthings got slaughtered?"
"As for this Mad Blade Pirates, I think that despite being pirates, they still retain some sense of conscience."
While Garp continued rambling, a massive iron fist came down on his head.
"Ow, that hurts! Sengoku, what are you doing?"
"Shut up, Garp! Dont defend the pirates!"
Watching Garp and Sengoku scuffle with each other, Tsuru let out a sigh.
These two had always been like this—constantly bickering and fighting.
But as she collected herself, her mind quickly began analyzing the inconsistencies in the situation, working to resolve them.
"Fleet Admiral Kong, were you just referring to Raleigh's new appointment? Is it Christian Raleigh?"
Tsuru recalled this matter.
Because she remembered that fellow was the one assigned to the North Blue, and his ship also carried Tokikake and Gion.
"Yes, that's the brat, known as the 'Lazy' Raleigh."
The two men who had been fighting paused their actions upon hearing this news.
"Raleigh, how did that guy get promoted to the North Blue?"
"Tsk tsk tsk, I thought with his lazy disposition, he'd never leave the East Blue."
Fleet Admiral Kong massaged his forehead and said.
"That's true, but his older brother Borsalino is also being assigned as a commander in the North Blue. That guy has been lazying around at headquarters, always going easy on pirates during arrests."
"I think his personality is the complete opposite of Sakazuki's, so I plan to recall Sakazuki and have Borsalino stay in the North Blue for two years."
"But then Borsalino, for whatever reason, insisted on bringing his younger brother Raleigh along, otherwise he refused the North Blue assignment. So I agreed."
"By the way, Tsuru, are you asking because you have some thoughts about this?"
Tsuru nodded and then said.
"From what I know, the nobles of Totterney Kingdom have been oppressing commoners for a long time, and the Mad Blade Pirates have been staying in the East Blue for quite some time without entering the Grand Line."
"You should know that the Mad Blade Pirates are different from other pirate crews - they mainly rob other pirate crews and collect bounties with pirate heads."
"For such a pirate crew to quickly rush into the Grand Line after killing the Kingdom's nobles feels unusual to me. With their strength, almost no one in the East Blue should be able to capture them."
Kong, Sengoku, and Garp all nodded simultaneously.
After Tsuru raised her question, they understood the reasoning behind it.
After all, as elite members of the Marines, they could analyze problems faster than normal people when they weren't being foolish.
Moreover, except for the blockheaded Garp, both Fleet Admiral Kong and the strategic genius Sengoku could comprehend this.
"Could it be that this Mad Blade Pirates actually has some connection with the Marines? But they shouldn't have ties with Branch 127, otherwise this incident wouldn't make sense."
Sengoku voiced his doubt.
"Perhaps the Mad Blade Pirates don't know anyone from Branch 127, but they might know someone from Branch 133, like Raleigh. This is also a possibility."
Kong said thoughtfully, then picked up the Den Den Mushi to call intelligence personnel to deliver the Mad Blade Pirates' files to his office.
"The urgent matter isn't dealing with the Mad Blade Pirates, but preventing the World Government from pinning this on us. I recommend sending at least a vice admiral from headquarters to handle this."
"Preferably an admiral, because I feel the World Government's attitude is too calm - they might have already dispatched CP agents to investigate in the East Blue without our knowledge."